Mysterium - Aestate Meridiem (Summer Glow)
by Vinczu
Summary: When Dipper gets a letter from Mabel a storm like chase begins with the oddest companion. Pacifica wants to find her friend, because the time for return is really close. The two of them, circling around each other while both going for their own goals. Will they reach the girl in time? Secrets are good to have, right? [First part of 'Mysterium' series] Updates every second Sunday
1. Chapter 1

When Dipper got the e-mail from Mabel to go to her place ASAP, he didn't hesitate. Given this did not happen so often, he made the run for it. He didn't care if he would be called out on his sister complex again by his friends at Campus. The only thing that rushed in his mind was Mabel may be in danger because she would either have called him or left a message. For her to write an e-mail was almost unspoken of. With this, he concluded that this e-mail was not sent by his twin but by someone else. So if someone else sent it, how did they get the control over her address and password? Which must have been Waddles for all Mabel was worth she gave the worst passcodes ever in history.

His legs carried him faster than he remembered they could do. Mabel's room was at the backside of the big dormitory hugging the old school building. How many times did he ask her to change vacancies? How many times did she refuse, all the time saying he was a silly-billy worry wart? He gulped when he finally reached the big door to the dormitory. It was still middle of summer, only some freeloaders loitered around the building. He took the first step cautiously, checking his phone once again. He got here fast, still it felt like an eternity.

The dormitory was empty expect the janitor who was whistling an annoying song while almost dance mopping the marble floor. Dipper took extra care not to be seen, then run for the room 220. Mabel decided to move in early, pushing the Dean to let her live here for the rest of august. The boy halted before the door which was decorated with a big rainbow and her name in glitter. No matter how old she became she was still her extraordinary self. He had to smile at her antics.

When he finally pushed the handle it gave in way too easily, so he could get in without any problem. The room was, however, empty, and neatly decorated. He was expecting hints of fighting or a corded Mabel wincing in the corner. None of that was there, and he felt a second of relief. Then his brain started to push more absurd scenarios, and his imagination went overboard.

The room had only one bed and a chair bed in the corner, a desk where her over-stickered laptop lay without a scratch. The wall was plastered with old and new photos of them and Gravity Falls. Then her new friends here in Collage. The middle had her picture with Waddles and the blue ribbon of them winning.

Dipper felt his fingers twitch as his eye scanned the room for any evidence of why he had to come here ASAP. She never used ASAP before. She would say it in a totally wring up way, not this standard shit.

It wasn't her style.

While he contemplated all the possibilities someone started to tinker with the lock on the other side of the door. His body got into fighting position automatically. Mabel would not have to tinker she would just burst in because she knew that the door was not locked. He heard metal hit the floor then a small swear from a shaky voice before the culprit finally barged in the room. Pushing the door back with all their might, so it almost broke by the handle.

Dipper's eyes widened in surprise because, it was not Mabel, but it wasn't a culprit either.

The burglar had long blond hair braided into a long tail behind their small frame, which now pressed against the door. Her body shook, and she heaved, the symptoms of running. Her feet seemed to root into the old wooden floor as her whole weight pressed against the door.

Before he could ask what she was doing, a tremor ran down his spine. From the hallways direction, a low grumbling could be heard. He wasn't the only one, the girl seemed to push even harder as the voice got closer and closer.

"Come, come, come out…." the low voice chanted sweetly as he knocked on every door while advancing towards them. "I know where you are…" it was almost like a song.

The girl whined and her shoulders stiffened, her back flexed as her muscles gave 120%. For a minute, it became completely silent and Dipper almost spoke up when the door started to rumble. Someone kicked it fiercely and the blonde slipped back. She was already on her toes pushing back with all her might. "I found you ~" the voice filled the air while hammering the wooden door from outside.

"GO AWAY!" the girl cried out, her voice hoarse and filled with anger and fear.

"Come, come, come out!" the voice chanted. "You know I love you~"

"GO AWAY! LEAVE ME ALONE!" she shouted back. Her words were calculated and as far as Dipper could see from behind her, her head remained held high all along. Her stare bearing holes into the wood before her.

The rattling became stronger as the stranger started to vary between kicks and hits. The girl was holding her ground pushing back and holding her helpless sobs back. "THIS IS MABEL'S ROOM!" she cried, and Dipper finally realized where he was.

"YOU ARE NOT WELCOME HERE!" she shouted. Then her voice broke as a stranger's hand pushed the door with her.

She glanced up at the boy who she didn't remember seeing when she burst into the room, her body froze.

"You heard her!" Dipper said his voice filled with promise.

A small whine could be heard from the other side, as for the last time the door rumbled and the guy from the other swear calling the girl names before his voice disappeared completely.

Dipper sighed and his stare wandered down to the girl who now was still in her pressing posture but her face was turned towards him. Her big blue eyes were filled with fear as she examined the boy behind her. Her hands tingled on the wood and Dipped could tell she was contemplating running for it. Was it not for the guy who must have still been outside the dorm.

After a long moment of silence, Dipper finally found his voice and let the door go stepping away from the frightened blonde. "Hi…"

"Who are you?" the girl asked, she turned so now her back was pressed against the door, her hands crossed before her chest. She stared at the taller guy, her voice was wrapped in intimidation, but Dipper could tell she was still afraid.

He felt the stare heavy on his face, and when he wanted to scratch the back of his neck the girl's muscles flexed, ready for anything. He let his hand fall and watched the girl follow the movement, then finally finding his face again.

"I am Dipper, Mabel's twin? And you?"

The knotted blonde eyebrows finally let up slowly then they started to wander upon her face. Her eyes became bigger and a new and kind emotion filled them. Her body became lax and her knees gave in. She slowly slid down to the ground, her breathing becoming normal again.

Dipper watched the whole ordeal with amusement, as her head rolled back looking up at him, and a small smile playing on her chapped lips.

"Look it's Mystery twins minus one…" she chuckled, wiping the sweat from her forehead, then realizing what she was doing she started to rearrange her bangs.

The familiar nickname rang a bell in his head, plus the blonde hair the high and mighty attitude and the bratty voice, he made his calculations. For now, it was his turn to turn into a surprised mess.

"Pa…Pacifica Northwest?" he crouched down, staring at the still ruffled girl.

"Who else?" she gestured richly.

"I can't believe it!" he sighed, finally pulling his cap off and running his fingers through his hair. "What are you doing here?"

"What are you?" Pacifica's voice changed so much from the time she first stepped into the room that Dipper could make two different type of girl out of them.

"Mabel called me." he stood up grabbing a stack of papers, flipping them through while still looking for any clues.

"And you came running, hm?" she drawled on still sitting on the floor.

"You came running too." his eyes never left the desk so he missed the light pink flush that painted Pacifica's face.

"That's because I was…" she tried to push herself back up, but her arms and legs thought otherwise so she remained on the ground swearing about how useless her limbs are.

"Have you seen Mabel lately?" Dipper continued to disregard the girl behind him and started up Mabel's old PC.

"No…" almost a whisper as she tried to get up, without any effort yet again.

"You lie, " Dipper pointed out, his eyes staring at the blank black background of the monitor where only two video files sit on the desktop. "you wouldn't have come here running if you didn't know she was already here."

She clicked her tongue in irritation. "Okay…" her sight was so long that the boy thought that she finished her sentence "…she told me to come here when…" she gulped "…when in trouble."

Her head rested on her left shoulder and she desperately tried to avert her eyes from the guy before her.

Dipper finally turned to her direction and examined the scene before him. The room was untouched, leaving the opened lock alone. Which again, wasn't broken up, Mabel simply left it so. Everything was in order, then here was the laptop and the fact that Mabel would always use some bright and irritating coloured background rather than leave it black.

Then here was Pacifica who had just so conveniently run here from whatever guy she must have made angry. His head started to hurt just by the thought of his sister taking care of Pacifica's unwanted suitors. Said girl still sat on the floor, trying to escape any eye contact if possible.

"So why are you here?" he asked.

"I said I…" she started her voice pitching high.

"You told me why you ran here." he pointed at the door, leaning forward towering over the small girl. "You never told me why you were on Campus in august."

Pacifica flinched.

"I don't even remember Mabel telling me you choosing the same Collage as she." his fingers counted the questions she had to answer or else. "When was the last time we saw each other by the way? Three years? Was it five?"

The girl averted her eyes again finally pulling her long legs up to her chest. After a big gulp, she looked up to Dipper, her eyes full with irritation.

"Me studying here, don't make me laugh!" she smirked, the corners of her lips twitching a bit. "Your memory must be shit, the last time we met was three years ago on your birthday party at the Falls."

"Hm…" Dipper scratched his chin, pushing his cap back a bit. "And Mabel?"

"Mabel what?" Pacifica's desperately sidestepped the question.

"When did you last see my sister?" his voice now became irritated too.

"Don't talk to me like that!" the blonde snapped up, finally pulling herself up so she could turn tables and tower over her interrogator. "Last week, okay! I met her last week here, are you happy now?!" her hands on her hips she leaned forward, her nose almost touching Dippers.

"Actually no, I am not." the boy said not letting her gaze go. "Mabel called me over, but it was way too unsuited for her." he pointed at the laptop "Now I find you in her room, and on her PC I find only two video files addressed to me and a Paz."

Pacifica finally looked up at the monitor, where a panel blinked with the word password in red. She let her hands fall and sidestepped the boy who turned with her to look at the screen. Her brows crooked and her head tilted to the side contemplating the kind of thing the silly Pines could have given as a secret password.

"Did you try the dirty pig's name?"

"Waddles was not the password."

"You really tried it?" she snorted.

Dipper shrugged, her sister tended to have the difficult things at most unconventional times. All her passwords were Waddles back in the day, she didn't really care for her private things. The more he found in this room the lesser he understood.

"Wait…" Pacifica leaned over the boy, her fingers running on the keyboard. Hitting enter with way more force than needed. Just to listen to the irritating *beep* sound again.

Dipper snickered at the girl's disapproving snort.

Pacifica huffed, pouting a bit then she turned and started to peel off her sneakers. Dipper watched the ordeal. She then proceeded to fold out the chair bed and slumped down to the furniture.

"You are staying."

"Yes." her hands promptly let her hair down, the braid leaving small waves in her long blond hair.

"But you don't want to help." he concluded, leaning back in the chair, his eyes still on the screen.

"Nope." she lay down the mattress, pulling the old baby blue blanket over herself.

Dipper heard her swear under her breath when he tried to decipher the password for multiple times before he decided to lay down himself. He had chosen Mabel's bed, off course. He glanced over his temporary roommate for the last time before, checking his phone again. It was so not his sister's style just to disappear like this. Not when she – if it was really her – wrote to him to hurry over. He looked up to the ceiling where Mable made him paint constellations. She bought a fluorescent paint and they used that, so now all the stars of the night looked down on him, faintly luminescent on the dark blue paint.

He felt sleepiness take over him, the half hour running without restraint and the strain that this whole situation put on him finally started to strike back.

Before he realized it, it was already morning. The morning sun shone through the small window, illuminating the whole room. He grumbled and turned to see how his roommate was doing. He almost jumped out of the bed when a long pale leg clad in baby blue blanket came in his vision. Pacifica sat on the chair before the laptop, her eyes were drowsy and her features all screamed fatigue.

He tried to stop his thundering heart, he didn't expect to see anyone so close to him this early in the morning. His gaze followed the girls, and he saw how she silently typed, just to be rejected once again. She huffed, but she seemed like she tried to do it quietly so Dipper would not wake. He watched her fingers tap to a rhythm that only she could be hearing in her head. When he tried to listen carefully he could hear a really small hum from the blonde.

She typed away again and tsk-ed when it was wrong again, grabbing the notepad he used last night to write up his tries, she added something to the list and finally turned to his direction.

When she caught him staring red handed she smirked, seductively lowering the blanket so her bare shoulders would show. She chuckled when Dippers face became red from embarrassment.

"Good Morning, sleepy head…" she said leaning back, still waiting for Dipper to finally get himself together and look at her properly.

"Go..Good Morning…" his gaze turned to the window where the sun was already happily shining. Today was going to be hot again. "Found anything?"

Pacifica, rolled her eyes pushing the notepad to the guy's chest. "Nothing…" she pulled her hair up to messy bun. "Whatever she give as a password she made that secret hidden away really good." she huffed pushing the chair back and letting Dipper get to have his way with the device.

He grumbled about Pacifica's handwriting which was hardly readable, and he just knew that if he asked her she would just make it harder for him. He tried to look over the hundred words she tried while the girl hummed quietly next to him. He didn't know the song but it was somehow familiar, he felt anger take up his soul as he flipped a page filled with words one after another.

He ran his hand through his hair and swear "Mabel was never good with secrets…why now?!" his voice was filled with agony.

The blonde looked at him sceptically. "She is great with secrets now, just so you know."

"Yeah, like you would know…" he laughed ironically.

She rolled her eyes. "Whatever…" she pouted and flexed her toes out and in again and again, watching her painted toes lazily.

"You tried every name, every band, and every food she likes…" Dipper finally said.

Pacifica nodded, now spacing out on the small light fleck on the table.

"How do you even know these?" his voice was filled with surprise when he finally get to the last word where his real name was written in her messy handwriting.

She smirked, her head resting on her knees. "It's a secret." her nose wrinkled from the smile she beamed at Dipper.

"Heh.." when Dipper remembered this girl, her smile was always either cruel or mocking. Leaving that one time when they hid away in her family's secret room. "I don't have any more ideas."

Pacifica rubbed her eyes, staring at the screen all morning wasn't good for her. When she got up and found Dipper sprawled on Mabel's bed she felt sorry for him a bit. So she tried her best to further the search for the secret password. Before she knew she heard herself hum again, glancing over to Dipper just to make sure he didn't hear that. Slumping down in the chair she watched Dipper try yet another false password.

His head lowered in disappointment, it seemed like he had no other idea either. She smirked, this was so not Dipper, he loved mystery and to unlock hard theories. Finding secrets and unfolding them. Seeing him this distraught, even after three whole years was kind of a let-down.

Suddenly a realization hit her. She almost toppled the chair over as she bent forward pushing Dipper back to the bed.

"Hey!" he repined.

"Sh!" she tapped on the keyboard, then stopped for a second for the dramatic effect.

When she pushed enter and the video player finally blinked green and started to play. She stopped it fast, glancing at her companion with a superior smirk.

"How?!" Dipper almost pushed the girl from the chair while examining the device. "What was the password?!" his face beamed.

"It's secret." Pacifica smiled, ruffling her bangs.

"Come on tell me!" the boy was so distraught from the rejection that he almost pouted.

"It is SECRET." Her fingers wrote the letters one after another into the air.

For a moment, Dipper looked at her with a dumbfounded face before breaking out laughing. After a while, the girl joined in and they almost couldn't stop themselves. When Dipper brushed a tear away from the corner of his eye, he finally redirected his attention to the video, which was addressed to him.

* Is this on?* Mabel's voice was filled with mischief just like always. *Ah, it is!* she giggled and the watchers had to smile. Finally her face came into view. She wore one of her sweaters light pink with big white stars, her hair looked messy and she beamed. *Hello Dipper! If you watch this it means that I am lost…* her face became deadly serious. *Dun! Dun! Dun!* she laughed after her dramatic effect which didn't convince either of the onlookers.

*No, actually it means that you got my e-mail!* she pointed to the background where her PC blinked happily. *Which is funny because I haven't sent it yet.* her brows knotted for a second. *Wait, I am speaking from the future, from the past to the past future?* She giggled then proceeded with her speech.

*This year I wanted to give you a really great birthday gift Sir Dippingsauce!* she blew into a party horn.

Pacifica looked over to Dipper who was so immersed in his sister's monologue that he seemed to forget that she was still in the radius of 1 meter.

*Because this year - again - you didn't want to go to Gravity Falls, because of some dumb school stuff…* her smile broke for a split second which both of them caught. *I present you with a birthday chase!* she popped a party popper.

"What?" Pacifica tilted her head.

"Sshh!" Dipper instructed while watching intently.

*You have a month to find me, I am one week before you.* Mabel winked. *Your starting point is my room, and the next hint is hidden here! You may use help if there is!* she opened her arms including the whole room. *Good luck Dipper!* she blew a kiss and the recording ended.

They remained silent, for a long time before Dipper wanted to play the video again. Pacifica stopped him.

"Wait I have a message too." she pointed at file entitled to Paz.

"It really is you then?" the boy asked not surprised at all. "Is that your nickname?"

"She gave it to me one-sidedly." she scoffed while starting the record.

*Hi Paz!* she shouted. She was wearing the same outfit as before so she must have made the two the same day. *If you are watching this you found out my Secret.* Mabel giggled. *Secret, get it?!* she wiggled her eyebrows.

Pacifica couldn't help but smile.

*So, he came back huh?* her demeanour changed altogether. So much that Dipper stopped checking every book on the desk searching for the clue. The blonde became smaller in the chair and could only hope that Mabel won't tell anything too detailed.

*It may be that you and my brother are here together…* she contemplated rubbing her chin.

The watchers looked at each other. *So if he is there you can go with him, it will be fun!* she chuckled. *Or stay here, it's safe here.* she smiled sincerely at her audience. *If Dipper finds me I'll be back soon and we can go to have fun again!* she smiled and waved bye.

The video stopped and Pacifica stood up. Letting the blanket hit the floor she stomped over to the temporary bed and started to rummage behind it. Dipper watched for a while, then decided to rewatch Mabel's message. No matter how long he watched he couldn't find out her motive. Well, he knew she wanted to go back to Gravity Falls this summer too, but it was just too complicated now with school work and real work. Leaning back he looked up at the photo with Waddles. From his point of view, the pictures corner was a bit creased. His fingers touched the picture lifting it a bit, so something slipped down.

His body moved faster than he anticipated and he ripped the picture from the wall revealing a small paper. He smirked and unfolded the paper.

*nice try :9*

Dipper frowned and pushed the little scrap into his pocket. He peeled the second picture from the wall. Another paper fell from it.

*nope w*

As relieved he felt when he found out that his sister was safe and sound, just as irritated he started to get after a few minutes of ripping down picture one after another.

*too bad T-T* *not this one…* *almost…haha* *nope Ow* *try again!*

Pacifica sat on the out folded mattress, duffle bag on her lap and watched the guy get madder and madder by the second. Each and every picture fell to the destroyed bed.

Dipper became taller, way taller than her. Well, Mabel was taller than her a bit too so she should have seen this coming. She hugged her bag and watched the guy work. His cap, which he never put down back then, lay on the desk. His hair was a mess, and every now and then he ran his hand through it irritated. She smiled, this seemed to become a habit of the guy.

She examined his arm from the distance, the red hoodie hid a lot of it but she could see a hint of a tattoo on his left arm. She tilted her head to the right, then back and her brows knotted. She repeated the movement and waited for Dipper to rip the last photo from the wall.

She watched him grumble than empty his pockets. All the small white and pink papers lay before him. Pacifica already knew what he was trying to do. It amused her to no end how this guy become when it concerned his sister. She remembered how jealous she was back then. She really wished someone cared so much for her.

She snickered when Dipper didn't find anything and wanted to play the video again.

"Hey, Sir Dippingsauce!" she waved at the guy when he finally turned to her direction.

"If you say it, it sounds like an insult…" he grumbled but jumped down from the bed.

Pacifica shrugged and waited till Dipper got to her.

"What?" he looked down on her, meeting clear blue eyes.

She smirked and pointed at the direction he just came from.

"Are you trying to joke with me?" he lowered his voice dangerously.

"No." she stood up and had to stand on her tiptoe just to turn the stubborn guy's head. "Look." she pointed again.

When Dipper finally looked to the direction his breath caught. The wall was slightly coloured where sun and dust could touch it. However under the pictures, the wall remained pure white. If one squinted a bit it looked almost like numbers. Well roughly disfigured numbers, but still numbers.

He heard the low beeping sound indicating that Pacifica already put the numbers into her phone's navigator.

"With this it's 2-0 to me Pines." she smirked, flashing her phone before the angry boy.

"Who said this is a contest?" he asked pulling his backpack and arranging it.

"Me." Pacifica pushed the duffel bag so its holder crossed her chest.

"Who said you could come with me?" he continued while watching the girl close the door behind them and falling into his pace.

"Mabel." Pacifica smirked again because she knew this one thing was the only thing Dipper wouldn't disregard.

* * *

AN.: Hope you like this, this is an idea that just wouldn't leave me alone after finishing GF.

Every chapter is checked with 'grammarly', taken I am Hungarian i try my best but there are just some mistakes that I may overlook so please, be kind :)


	2. Chapter 2

The heat was unbearable, Pacifica was already down to a light top and she had to constantly swipe sweat from her face. Their road trip till now was silent, none of them wanted to speak to the other. Dipper even pointed out how she could just have stayed back if the only thing she was about to do was a fuss over how hot it is and how long the ride will take.

Not like he didn't fume himself, he seemed really unfazed on the surface but Pacifica could tell, that he was outraged deep inside. He pulled off his hoodie right after they stepped down from the Bus, so now the girl could finally examine his tattoos. Yes, tattoos because not just his arm had it, it decorated part of his shoulder and a small constellation could be found on the back of his neck. She stole glances at it, just to figure out what they were. Most of them would look like random scribbles if you weren't from Gravity Falls. After the 'Never mind all that' everyone would recognize the thing engraved into his skin from miles away.

She puffed so hard that her bangs flew up, then promptly stick to her sweaty forehead.

Why would anyone want that disgusting thing on them, that evil triangle bastard? Only this dork would go to the lengths to not just consider but actually do something this stupid. However when she tried to examine it more Dipper suddenly stopped. She almost hit him, stopping right beside him, she frowned at him, and he didn't even look in her direction.

"We are here?" he asked checking his phone.

According to the navi, they were at the coordinates that were on the wall back in Piedmont. After three hours on the bus and two other walking uphill, they stopped before a steep rock wall.

"Let me see!" Pacifica stole the phone, just to listen to a low groan.

She examined the map, then the double checked the coordinates.

"I think my goal is up there." Dipper finally spoke up.

He cracked his shoulders while warming up, Pacifica watched him limber up.

"You surely meant our destination, right?" the girl let her duffle bag hit the dusty ground.

"Yeah, yeah…" Dipper said grabbing a projection on the wall.

His muscle flexed, and Pacifica had to hide a surfacing blush at the sight of the boy's new structure. Last time she saw him he was still a weakling with a sister complex. Look at him he is a buff boy now with a sister complex. Were three years really that long ago? While she was on Memory Lane, Dipper cussed and landed right next to her.

Clapping his hands together trying to get the dirt off his hands. "We need to find another way…"

"Hold my bag." she handed it to him.

"Look I know you are used to slaves, or whatever you call them…" he rambled.

"Shut up!" she screeched and pushed her bag to his chest, with this promptly silencing the guy. She looked up the wall for a moment before turning back to the guy. "Lift me."

His face was priceless. He frowned while cussing again but intertwining his hands for Pacifica to step on.

She smirked and took the chance while the boy was obedient, stepping first into his palms, then to his shoulders. She felt sorry for the guy when he hissed under the pressure of her sneakers.

"What are you doing…?" Dipper asked, but then the weight was finally lifted from his shoulders.

He blinked up, to see the famous Northwest, slowly let out a breath before grabbing a faraway rock on the wall. Her toes were showed into the concrete wall, pushing again and again till she had a place to step on.

Dipper watched her climb, her face was like a painting concentrating so hard, that she might have forgotten that he was there at all. Her body moved swiftly, and when she jumped for the next projection he had to hold his breath. The blonde was already over half of the obstacle when, her right hand slipped and she began to fall.

"Shit!" she cursed before steadying herself on the wall again. She had to shake her left hand for a while after all the strength it had to put out.

"Hey, you okay?" Dipper was now worrying.

The girl had already ascended way high to fall back without a serious injury. Rather than answering she glared down at him, shutting him up efficiently.

Dipper watched her exhale again, then climb up to her previous position again. "Dipper, how long to the top?" her voice was hoarse from the exertion.

"You are half way there!" he shouted back, aligning the two bags on his back. "Maybe you should come back down." he stepped to the direction where she put her leg next. Just in case if she fell he should be a pillow, or a sword depending on the angle. "We can still look around!"

"No!" she pushed her body up, hissing when her chest collided with the hot surface. Beads of sweat rolled down her temple. Oh, how she hated heat and sweating. "I can do it, just wait and see." she examined her next target. She had to jump for it, when was the last time climbed like this?

Ah right three years ago, right when these idiots came back and she had to follow Mabel to a very secret place. A nice breeze hit her body soothing her nerves. Her fingers hurt from the rocky surface. This damn wall shouldn't have been this steep, is this some kind of punishment or what?

"Look, you are really great, okay?" Dipper confessed looking at the blonde girl. "Really, so come down and let's…" before he finished Pacifica's body lounged back a bit then she let go of the projection she was standing on and jumped.

It lasted only a second or so but for the guy below it felt like an hour. When she steadied herself on her new place she glanced down.

Grinning madly at the sweating guy.

Right now Dipper really wanted to slap that snobbish blonde head. He almost had a heart attack back down there. He watched her take the remaining climbing without further complication, then she disappeared over the wall.

He waited patiently for anything to happen but, the girl seemed to disappear.

"Pacifica!?" forming a cone with his palms she shouted. No answer came. "Shit!"

Ha started to pace around, new and bold scenarios started to flood his head. He started to peel off his bags but something hit his head right when he was about lose it.

A small giggle could be heard from up high, and when he looked up, he found Pacifica smiling down him, dangling a rope right before his face. He felt relieved to see that mocking grin on the girl's face.

"Aww, were you worried?" she drawled while she wrapped the rope around her body.

"Yeah, now I see it was useless…" he sighed then wrapped the rope around the bags then himself. Climbing like this was way easier and far more eventless.

When he finally made his way up, a green glade came into his view. There were some big oak trees, one had the rope fastened to its bole. Pacifica offered her hand and helped him up than together they pulled the bags.

"I didn't think that you were the type to get a rope to an outing…" he exhaled, flexing his fingers, which were scraped by the coarse rope.

"It was already here, but thanks…" the blonde huffed, and let her arms fall to her side.

"Then we are on the right path!" Dipper laughed merrily.

Both of them lay in the grass for a while, before Dipper pushed up himself and started to search the area.

Pacifica turned to her belly lazily watching the guy rummage in the nearby bushes. "You have no chill…" she pouted tearing a single grass, then twirling it between her fingers. "Ah, I want a bath!" she sniveled.

"Then feel free to go home." Dipper was halfway into a bush and just avoided a branch from sticking out his eye.

"You are welcome by the way!" she shouted after the guy, still laying on the warm ground.

"Call for your limo and get home!" Dipper repeated.

"Such an ungrateful b…" she fell silent when she saw the bush next to Dipper move. "Shi…Dipper!" she whispered slowly clambering to his direction.

The said guy, just continued his search, not minding her worried voice.

Pacifica rested her gaze on the suspicious movements "Dipper!" she whisper-shouted. Her voice was so high-pitched that if it was an animal it was sure to run for it by now. However, it never ceased its doing.

Dipper finally noticed the girl, but his reaction wasn't right one. "What now?!" he exhaled way too loud.

The thing in the bush jump up, and a frightened deer escaped, almost hitting the fazed guy next to it. Pacifica shrieked and shut her eyes tightly. When she finally dared to squint with one eye open she saw a smug smile on the Pines's face.

"Aww, were you worried?" he snickered, holding up an envelope. "Found it!" he ruffled the girl's hair.

"Well it seems like it was futile." her voice was filled with annoyance, as she pushed herself up, grabbing at the envelope and ripping it open.

"Hey!" the guy grabbed her hand, holding it high, so she couldn't escape him.

They stood like this staring at each other, till Pacifica give up, nursing her wrist, which didn't hurt, but became hot on the spot where Dipper touched. She sulked ripping her bag open and rummaging around till she found a bottle of water and she gobbled it down almost emptying the whole bottle.

Dipper watched the high and mighty heiress grumble and gurgle with the one bottle water he himself added to her pack. Sighing he opened the creased paper. It was addressed to him, and the date went six days back, which meant he was on a hot trail. The envelope had a big folded up paper with holes in different places. He opened the envelope more to find a note with a small package addressed to 'Paz' again.

He huffed watching the spoiled girl tear some more grass from the ground and toss in anger. Shaking his head he opened the note.

*Hey, Bro-Bro!

You are on the right track, congrats! Too bad you didn't found me here, huh? :9

Your next clue is hidden in this text and on the map I left for you. :D

I bet yer face is gloom y, but try to smile for her sake.

XOXO MABEL*

He reread and reread the letter over and over again. This was Mabel's style all right, but what's with the map, well with the holey map. He strolled back to Pacifica slumping down next to her. Holding the little package right before her face.

She grabbed it, just to grip air, her frown turned to Dippers victorious face. He dangled the little thing right before the blonde's face.

"I'll give it to you on one condition!" his other hand searched his backpack, till it found a journal with a pen.

"Which is?" while her voice had hidden her irritation her features didn't, and every time she missed her target she would puff up her cheeks more and more. If Dipper didn't know better he would say that she was cute like that.

"Let me see it, there may be other clues." he held up his chunk of paper where Mabel's handwriting shined.

"I am showing mine if you show me yours." her smirk became seductive and she winked.

"Bet this is how you get all the bad company…" he sighed and flicked her forehead.

She nursed her head sulking about Dippers assumptions. "Yeah, right…" she snapped the little package and let Dipper see when she opened it.

It had a small lama medal with a thin chain. While Dipper didn't get it, he remembered Pacifica being the symbol of that back in Gravity Falls.

She, on the other hand, broke into an honest smile and hurriedly put it on her neck, hiding it under her shirt.

Finally, she folded out the little note.

*Paz!

Look what I found. It was back there. Please don't go back there anymore! Come to my place, or if you are with my brother good luck finding me!

XOXO MABEL 3 *

"See there weren't any clues in mine." she showed it to his face.

"Yeah, okay. But tell me about this whole thing with Mabel and you?" he leaned forward leaving no escape routes for his companion. "I meant to ask this for a while now."

"Whatever you mean?" Pacifica glared at the nearby tree with all her might.

"Don't evade it!" he grabbed her shoulder turning her to face him. "You put my sister in danger every time you dump a guy and they come after you, huh?" he asked his voice wrapped with venom. "If it's possible, please stop it."

Pacifica's face paled as he went on, but he didn't seem to catch it.

"And when exactly did the two of you become such good friends?" he flicked the paper.

The girl remained silent for a while, staring at her feet on the light green ground.

"So?" Dipper urged.

"It's a secret?" she half asked waiting for a shouting contest with the guy. But for her surprise, he didn't.

Rather he pointed at the direction they came from. "Then go home."

"No." she held her nose high, founding her normal tone again.

"Then tell!" he still held her shoulders forcing her to look at him.

"If you solve this…" she spat finally "If you solve this one I'll tell."

"Promise?" Dipper asked holding out his pinkie.

Pacifica stared at the finger pushed into her face. "Are we still in ground school?" still she hooked up her own pinkie with his. "Promise."

He grinned and shake it.

"So what is in yours?" she asked glancing over the big out folded map.

"Oh, yes." he threw it to her direction. "There wasn't really any clues, but maybe if we align this right." he opened his journal and fished out an old map from its pages. "It may show."

While he tinkered with the two papers she read the letter. There she didn't found anything. She reread it, but it was really just Mabel's type of message. She had tons like in her inbox.

The sun was about to set, and Dipper still didn't find anything that could be considered as a clue. The map didn't help. He tried to fold it into different shapes, just like Mabel did back then. Hoping that just like last time it would somehow work out. But it didn't. The greens turned into oranges and the shadows became darker and darker around them.

Pacifica tinkered with her newly found amulet and get her blanket out. She kind of hoped that this time Dipper just wouldn't find the clue and they could have a nice long night sleeping. The day was tiring itself, she wasn't just ready to talk about anything concerning herself.

She flipped to her belly, her phone still had power, and out here where she didn't need to use it lasted way longer than any time before. It was already getting late, but her companion just like yesterday didn't seem to give up just yet.

"Argh!" Dipper threw his cap to the ground cussing. Running his hand through his hair. "I don't get it no matter what I lay under it, it just doesn't show anything."

"Hm…too bad…" she said feigning sadness.

"Any ideas you are holding back?" Dipper glared at her direction. The night was already setting in, and darkness hid away their faces.

"Nope," she sounded honest enough for Dipper. "I mean she always writes like this, right?" she pushed a button on her phone, using its flash as a torch.

"Don't use that!" Dipper held her hand.

Pacifica jumped at the sudden touch but turned it off. "Okay then, how will we see?"

The boy started to fish around in his backpack. Pacifica heard a bottle opening, then something snapped.

Faint pink and yellow light illuminated Dippers face.

"Are those party sticks?" she pointed at him with disbelief. "That won't be enough at all…" she sighed.

But then Dipper showed the sticks into his water, multiplying the light folds. Pacifica looked mesmerized at the faint light becoming stronger in the water, painting the grass around it to neon color.

"That's pretty clever…" she grabbed the bottle holding it up and using it to light her note. Just now she realized that on the other side, it instructed Dipper to send it to her if she did not happen to be with him. Was Mabel always this prescient?

"Thank you." the boy fall next to her on the grass using her as a lamp stand to further investigate the map. "Got that from the scout's handbook." he told her proudly.

"Figures…" she whispered holding back a giggle.

She tried to follow Dipper's instructions, to her best. They lay on their backs, shoulders touching while Pacifica held up the bottle illuminating the paper before them. After another half hour of futile tries, she snorted in annoyance.

"Let's sleep!" she dropped the bottle to the ground next to her head.

"Just a bit more," he said finally letting the states map fall to his chest, and only holding up the holey map. "I feel that we are close to-" he stopped midsentence.

Pacifica looked up too, annoyed at the guy's stubbornness, but her eyes widened just as her companions.

"Constellations?" his voice was almost nothing but a whisper. "Constellations!" he turned to Pacifica to announce it. "Pacifica it's Con…" his voice broke when he found the girl looking at him mesmerized too with a small smile on her lips.

Their noses almost touched and Dipper had to gulp an invisible knot down. She looked like a fairy with the delicate pink light painting her blond hair and her blue eyes were filled with joy as she nodded a bit.

The map was grabbed by her right hand stretching it out so they could align it right. "Let's find Ursa Major!" she chirped happily.

Dipper felt his face heat up, the girl was cruel, cynical, skeptic, mocking and making a nasty joke every other moment. How could she look this cute sometimes? Dipper cursed his hormones.

With her help, they found the Big Dipper, held up the paper became dark and only the stars blinked at them, over the holes that Mabel must have cut out with outmost care. They examined the paper, other than the nice view of some stars it wasn't that big of a discovery.

"Now what?" Pacifica asked scanning the stars again and again.

Their best bet was the Big Dipper, and aligning it to nearby constellations, where other holes seemed to match. However other than seeing the said stars it didn't show anything else.

"Hm…" Dipper let the paper go, making Pacifica grab it with her free hand and trying her best to hold it up alone. "I need this…" he leaned over the girl grabbing the bottle.

Pacifica froze, his scent invaded her senses, and the closeness of them only registered with her right now. She averted her eyes and pushed her limits to stop the shaking of her hands.

Her face must have been red, she was never so happy that Dipper used the pink stick, rather than something else. Before she realized it he was back at his own place, opening his journal.

"You still have one of those?"

"I need it for my…" he felt silence for a moment. "…why, do you have a problem with it?" he held the bottle with his chin and started to sketch on a blank page.

"No, it would be actually strange if you didn't have one." she pointed out.

"Hold it upright," he helped her steady the map. "there."

"Yeah hurry up." she felt her face burn again. Her brain started to act up again. She remembered this phenomenon from back then. She had a crush on the Pines boy, right when she saw him. But their 'relationship' became bitter fast when she insulted his sister.

Looking back on it, she felt silly for even believing this feeling. Dipper loved Wendy, and if she knew him good, chances were high he still did. She didn't hear anything from Mabel, not that she asked her. Talking about Dipper was hard for her, because of multiple reasons. First, he knew the secret of her family. Second he and she never really get along. They weren't enemies anymore but they weren't friends either.

Same was true about Mabel, but because of the girl's stubbornness - which seemed to run in the family - they warmed up to each other.

"Okay, I finished it." he said happily snapping the journal shut.

"Finally!" the girl sighed letting her aching arms down, folding the hole map together. "What did you find?" she leaned over to look into the journal but the boy already tossed it away.

"I'll show tomorrow," he said finally breaking their contact and rolling to his side "let's sleep now."

Pacifica fumed for a bit then she felt silent too, she went to sweet slumber while watching Dipper's big back rise and fall rhythmically.

That night she dreamed about him again, she was running.

 _She already saw the colorful rainbow on the door. She slipped and hit her shoulder on the wall. His voice filled the air and the hairs on the back of her neck stood up. She felt cold sweat run down her jaw, as she steadied herself to rocket start for her safe place._

 _The hallway seemed never ending and every step hurt her sole. These damn sneakers were not good either, she really needed proper running shoes. She found it funny that these kinds of things popped up in her head. She could see her own breath he was close, her hair floated behind her and she already cursed herself for ever braiding it that morning._

 _Why didn't the door get any closer, she felt the ground turn under her feet and she lost her balance. Her palm hit the wall, pushing with her last power she jumped for the handle on the happy door._

 _The metal felt cold and slippery, she couldn't grab it. Her hands slipped down and the door remained closed. The hallway turned and she started to fall. Like she was in a loop the door followed her and she tried desperately to open it._

 _"_ _Come, come, come out…!"_

 _"_ _No!" she screamed grabbing at the handle again._

 _This time, it opened, and relief washed over her, but in the door, a tall figure barricaded her way in. Her eyes snapped up to his face, that kind face she remembered._

 _"_ _Ah, it's you…" Dippers voice filled her with hope._

 _"_ _Come, come, come…I know where you are~" the knocking started and Pacifica was too afraid to look back._

 _"_ _Dipper thank Go-" she held out her hand trying to grab the boy's floating vest._

 _"_ _You dumped a poor idiot again, huh?" his face was hidden in a shadow, the white of his eyes flickering in the darkness._

 _"_ _Wha…" Pacifica felt her eyes water up. She pushed her body to the limits, but no matter what she did she couldn't get closer to the boy or to the room._

 _"_ _You know I love you…" it was already hammering right behind her._

 _"_ _Suit yourself," Dipper grinned closing the door right before the heaving girl._

 _"_ _No…" she sobbed._

 _"_ _I found you~"_

"NO!" she screamed sitting up abruptly. Her chest rising and falling fast, her face was wet from tears.

"What happened…"

Someone touched her shoulder making her jump from her place, almost falling back. Her knees were weak. She slumped to the ground when she finally realized where she was. Her glazed eyes recognized the glade and Dipper. His face was twisted into a confused mess. He was nursing his hand.

Pacifica put the pieces together fast, she must have hit him, when? Why did this dream come again? She tried to calm herself.

"Are you alright?" he asked again his voice sounded worried, and he tried to advance to her direction.

She gulped and pulled the tie from her hair. Her hands were still shaking. "Yeah, just a bad dream…" she smiled shakily. "I just need a long hot bath and everything will be all right."

Was she lying to Dipper or to herself she didn't even know now? She ran her hands through her sweaty and dirty hair. She pulled it over her shoulder shielding herself with it.

"You should really go home…" Dipper said with concern in his eyes.

He already sat next to her, taking extra care not to touch her. He has seen Mabel in this state once before. After Waddles died she always had sad dreams, and Pacifica's state resembled that. But he never saw anyone shake this much. At night too she was tossing and turning, that's why he wake up so early.

He watched her turmoil, too afraid to wake her, just when he decided to gently shake her from her dream she screamed and ran from his touch. Now she was sitting, her small frame became so much smaller, this times he really wanted to see a rather bratty little girl then this gal on her side shaking and frightened.

He knew there was nothing he could do, just being there seemed to calm down the girl a bit. She tried to hide her sobs from him, and he gallantly pretended not to hear them.

"Wanna grab a bite?" he offered a granola bar he hid in the depths of his backpack.

The girl nodded then took the snack biting only a bit of it. They sat there in silence, the dawn came early in summer, making their day longer and longer. Even though autumn was in the doorway they still had three whole weeks before summer ended.

"What did you find?" she asked averting her eyes, and munching on the half eaten bar.

"Ah!" he jumped up, making the girl flinch next to him. He ran back to their 'sleeping quarters' and ripped his journal from his bag. "Look, this becomes a map."

He lay the notebook before the girl showing off his revelations.

Pacifica leaned forward to examine it further, the guy was right. Somehow from the holey map and the stars, Dipper sketched up a crudely drawn map.

"How?" she asked her mouth full with the sweets.

"When we held it up" he gestured heavily "Some stars were missed desperately," he explained. "Like Polaris was missing…" he stopped looking up at Pacifica.

Said girl looked at him expecting the further lecture, then it clicked. Polaris, the Northern star. The one which her cheating Grandpa used as an excuse, telling he was the one finding Gravity Falls. She gulped down her food smiling. "And..?"

On clue Dipper finally continued. "I marked all missing stars and connected them in the order they come in their own constellation."

The girl nodded. Thinking that Mabel made this, she had to grin. How long did she plan this?

"Like this, its lines up neatly with our map…" he folded it out. "Our next destination is here." he pointed at the small town 400 km from them. "If we depart now, we can get here by nightfall."

"Slow down a bit." she held up her hands. "First of all, I need a bath…" when Dipper wanted to speak up she hold up her finger to stop him "…you stink too, just so you know." she grimaced. "We need to eat normal food too." she pointed out.

Dipper had to give that to her. His belly already protested of the idea to leave without a proper meal. He looked at their map, the closest town was only 25km away. They had to head back to the bus stop, then with that they would be able to reach the town fast. Grab a room with shower and maybe with breakfast.

"Good, deal…" he said pulling up the girl next to him. H still felt some shaking but it seemed like the girl already fought her fears back. "And just so you know, it's 2-1 now, Northwest." he smirked still holding her hand.

She slapped his hand away, and her old-self surfaced again. "You are still on the losing side, though."


	3. Chapter 3

The hot water tinged Dippers skin as it ran down his dirt hugged body. It was only the third day of their chase with Mabel and he felt already tried. He called everyone that may have known where his sister hid. No one gave him any useful information, either they didn't know or wouldn't tell him what they knew. He grumbled while he shampooed his nest of hair.

The fact that Pacifica wouldn't leave either made him bitter too. If he was alone he could have had his chase at his own pace. But having another person slowed him down.

That wasn't really true, though. This made him even angrier if it wasn't for the girl he would have been in several days lag. Not to mention her little acrobat scene on the rock wall. He finally rinsed with cold water. Stepping out from the shower he noticed what he totally let slip before.

Pacifica was the first to invade the bathroom, and it looked like her clothes remained here. Rather on the floor, they were left in the sink with water and, if his nose didn't play a trick on him, detergent. This was another surprise considering the gal, if he had to he would bet she just threw them in the trash and bought new ones instead.

He watched his reflection, pushing his bangs back, his awkward birthmark shone up. He clicked his tongue in irritation promptly pushing his hair back.

 _"Hah, you still a wimp!"_

Dippers head snapped so fast he heard some of his vertebrae gave out a sorry sound. He examined his reflection, leaning over the full sink. It was normal, nothing out of ordinary, he sighed.

 _"Ha haha ah ha…"_

That laugh made chills run down on his back, he looked around frantically. This wasn't the first time he heard this voice, the only thing that scared him was that the owner of the voice was supposed to be dead. Gone. They eradicated him seven years ago.

Even the smallest possibility of him resurfacing made the boy shudder. Sometimes he saw him in his dreams, hunting him. Trying to come back to live but he never heard it this clear before. The demon hurting him, Mabel and everyone in Gravity Falls. Bill still haunted his life.

The mirror became faded from the hot water, so he smeared it to see his reflection again.

His heart skipped a beat when instead of his own brown eyes, golden ones flashed at him with a thin black iris.

"LEAVE!" unintentionally he hit the mirror with such power it cracked at the corner.

Dipper heaved and almost jump when Pacifica ripped the door up.

"Are you okay?!" her voice was worried, her gaze looking around fast. Just like she was searching for something.

Dipper stared at her, she was so fast coming to rescue, she even forgot he was still naked, not to mention herself being underdressed too. Only a light top and her underwear. Before Dipper could say anything, her gaze wandered to him, then to his hand on the cracked mirror.

With a sigh of relief, she looked up to the petrified guy's face. "Ah, don't scare me like that, idiot!" she turned closing the door.

The boy stood there like a stone statue, looking at the now closed door. Could it be she didn't notice him being naked? No, it can't can it.

"Just so you know you pay fo…" she opened the door again. This time fully aware of what she was doing. Her face became red in an instant, and Dipper could help but follow suit. "Ne..Never mind." she closed the door slowly.

Dipper heard big noise coming from the direction of the standard cupboard next to the bathroom door, plus a hiss and a really rich curse.

When his heart finally calmed down, he dressed and checked the mirror for the last time. Just his own boring and right now lightly flushed face looked back at him. When he opened the door, the girl was already finished dressing too. She hugged her duffle bag to her chest, glaring at their hotel room's door.

He slumped to the bed next to her, still drying his hair with a towel. Dipper noticed a flinch from the girl. He felt a silly grin tug at the corner of his lips. The girl was embarrassed. The great Pacifica Northwest, Miss Gravity Falls, was embarrassed because of him.

"What so funny?" she asked still averting her eyes, her cheeks were puffed up and her voice was weaker than usually.

"Oh, nothing!" now Dipper wasn't able to stuff his laughter down.

"What?" she turned to him, her glare filled with promise.

"Nothing, just your face is priceless." he hid his grin behind his palm.

Pacifica rose from the mattress with elegance Dipper has never before laid eyes upon. Flipping her blonde hair, while sauntering to the bathroom.

"Your girly shriek was priceless!" she howled back from the sill. "NERD!" the door clicked back to its frame it almost broke free from the wall when the girl kicked it shut.

Dipper lay back to the bed, it already passed noon. The girl wanted him to rest a bit, in normal condition and eat. Wash up, because she made every conversation an excuse to tell he stinks. Now that they were finally finished and the girl had her wishes granted he was more than eager to leave. He hid behind his arm trying his best to forget the whole thing with Bill, and his hallucinations.

He let a breath he didn't know he was holding go and relaxed. Waiting for the girl seemed to never end. Whatever she was doing in there she was humming again, maybe she didn't even realize it herself, but whenever she was spacing out she would start the same song. Which no matter how long Dipper searched in his head couldn't just pinpoint.

Before long the door opened and Pacifica walked out, her duffle bag already over her shoulder ready to leave.

"Get up!" she lightly kicked the boy's shin. Giggling when the other party grumbled in return.

"Just for the record, I was the one waiting." Dipper grabbed his bag and followed the blonde to the porch. "What were you even doing in there?"

"Are you really asking a girl what she was doing in the bathroom?" her arms crossed she tapped with her feet while the guy locked up.

Dipper felt his ear heat up "I..that wasn't what…"

"I washed my clothes." Pacifica turned leaving the boy behind, lightly jogging to the reception.

The boy rolled his eyes following her to the young man on desk duty.

"We are checking out." she gestured Dipper to toss her the keys.

"What right away?" the man behind the desk asked, slurring at the girl. "You should stay longer."

Dipper rolled his eyes, now he had to watch a poor soul try and woo Miss Gravity Falls. If his memory didn't lie to him, this guy would be rejected quite harshly. He already patted the man named Jeffry on the back.

"Thanks," she smiled. "uhm, Jeffry."

For Dipper's surprize, Pacifica wasn't cruel, but she didn't seem to fall into flirting either. Like dancing on the silver lining she continued. Dipper on the other had had to lean to the wall next to the door and examine this anomaly.

"Look, Pacifica," Jeffry grinned, leaning over the table to get closer to the short girl. "Why don't I show you around? I bet you are used to big cities, huh?" He held out his hand, waiting for the girl to take.

"That's nice." Pacifica's tone didn't change, however, her smile looked crooked. "But we are on schedule, so maybe next time?"

"Come on…" he drawled, holding a string of the long blond hair. "…you are in such a hurry you didn't even dry your hair properly?" he drew circles on her hair with his thumb.

Dipper started to feel awkward, and while the girl never looked in his direction for help, he somehow felt her distress signals. No matter how much he liked to see the girl tiptoe around the unwanted date, he saw her go stiff.

Jeffry slowly tugged on her hair, and even though Pacifica seemed not to care her head tipped back slightly. "Come on, reject me right or I won't stop." he looped her hair on his index finger putting in more strength.

Did he actually forget the Dipper was there too? Before he took his first step, Pacifica pulled her hair back, promptly tugging it behind her ear.

"I'm not interested then," she huffed her hand on the duffle bag's strip, gripping it with just a bit too much strength. "we would like to check out please."

Jeffry whistled, leaning on his hand grinning at the girl. "Playing hard to get now?" he chuckled when the girl's ear became red from anger. "I like cute girls like you."

"Thank you." her voice never sounded so flat to Dipper.

As if this was his cue, he walked up to the girl and pushed their keys on the counter. Hugging her shoulder. "Sorry man, already taken." with that he turned the stiff girl and literally pushed her out the door.

"Good catch dude!" Jeffry shouted after them.

To which Dipper just waved back.

"Disgusting…" Pacifica said half an hour later in the nearby diner.

Dipper hid behind his cup, waiting for their food. The blonde was fussing over the incident all the way here and she just couldn't stop. She pulled and pushed the same string of hair again and again, till she decided to pull it up into a ponytail. Finally letting go of it. However, now her fingers were dancing on the table, making Dipper borderline crazy.

"Should have told him that earlier." he opened the local newspaper, his eyes running over the headlines.

"Sorry for trying to be nice." she said with withheld anger.

"You never tried before, so what's the change?" he absentmindedly actually said it out loud. He lowered the paper to catch a glimpse of a disheartened emotion run over her features before she was back to her normal self.

"Maybe I am trying to change…" she pouted mixing more sugar into her cappuccino.

They fell silent till the food arrived and they dig in. Pacifica finished first leaning to the window she started to hum again.

"So, our deal," Dipper smiled over his empty plate.

If the girl thought that he forget their promise she was stupider then Dipper believed her to be. He waited for the girl to stop that high and mighty frown and sigh in resignedly.

"What do you want to know then?" her arms opened she leaned back in her seat "Mr. Dippingsauce."

He flinched at the nickname. "Again if you say it, it sounds like an insult."

She snorted rather than commenting on his repeated words.

"So about Mabel and you?"

The waitress took their plates away asking if they anything else. Which they refused asking for the bill. When the lady left Pacifica finally started her tale.

"After the 'Never mind it all' happened, and you left, our family stagnated for a while."

Dipper listened to her story, even though he preferred Wierdmageddon, when talking about what happened that summer he didn't want to stop the girl right at the beginning.

"Mabel started to send letters, for everyone." she fidgeted with her medal "First it was one letter addressed to the all of us. Then she started to send postcards from Piedmont. Or photos." she smiled a bit. Remembering all the funny things Mabel wrote back then.

"I never replied, though." her smile turned to bitter.

"Sounds like you." Dipper sighed and waved for her to continue.

If he was right he would maybe get some clues from Pacifica about his sister's whereabouts.

"Thanks…" Pacifica's face turned even more depressed. "I never answered her, and when you guys came back next summer I asked her about it. She shrugged it off, as we were friends and she wants to tell me about everything." Her hand stopped on the medal, her grip getting stronger over it. "I mocked her because of it."

For a moment she stopped, taking a deep breath before continuing. "And you guys left again, nothing out of the ordinary happened that summer if you remember."

Dipper nodded, townsfolk greeted them. Everyone was happy to see them. It was a nice summer, even though Grunkle Stan and Grunkle Ford were away on their adventures. They searched the woods again, just the two of them looking for new mysteries, but Gravity Falls seemed to calm down.

"After that, my family had to move." she gulped. "I know, I know the great Northwest moving out of Gravity Falls. Hilarious, huh?" even though her face didn't look like she was humored, though.

"But we met again next summer, or…" Dipper searched his memories.

"Yeah we went back for vacation." she smiled. "Mabel knew this, and she kept it secret, even though I never asked her." she finally let go of her medal, instead started to tap on the wooden table between them. "We still wrote letters to each other, she had my number too, but snail mail was our thing."

The diner started to get livelier, and she had to lower her voice a bit, so no one else could hear her but Dipper. "I went back every summer, my family still had a vacation house in the mountains. I really waited for this time of year to meet you guys again," she confessed, her cheeks flushing a bit.

A warm feeling washed over Dipper watching the girl fumble over her words, explaining how she only meant Mabel, but he already knew that she was rather bad at lying.

"So…" she went on after some disguised coughs. "The last year you guys came was three years ago, if you can remember we even met on the mountain." she pointed at him.

Dipper had to concentrate really badly, and some flecks of his mind tried to put the pieces together. Without victory, all he remembered from that summer were the resurfacing nightmares. Plus Wendy in a bathing suit, but he would have rather died than told that to Pacifica.

"I bet you remember what color Corduroy's bikini was." she smirked when Dipper face flushed.

She laughed heartedly and went on. "Whatever, you guys never came again." she pouted a bit, still tapping on the table but now with intent. "My new High school was nice, but I missed Gravity Falls too much. No matter what it was fun, so when the time came to choose a Collage I went back."

"Gravity Falls has a Collage?"

"Wha.., no." she let her hands fall to her lap. "It's actually an hour long ride there!"

"So…" Dipper tapped his chin. "…you tell me you live in Gravity Falls again."

Pacifica nodded.

"I have helped Mabel with stuff and so did she," she said letting her head roll back to the backrest. "We kind of warmed up to each other and became friends, that's all." she shrugged.

"Then what about those messages and the running to her." If Pacifica though that he would let it slip she was wrong. "Because even if, I am wrong you are still hours away from her school." he watched the girl lean forward, hands on the table.

Mischief gleamed in her light blue orbs. "One solved mystery means only one secret revealed." she held up one finger before putting cash on top of their bill.

"What?! You Pinkie Promised!" he shouted after the girl who was already out the door.

Dipper ripped the door up, running after the girl, who now was rushing for the bus stop just across the street. Laughing at the boy for falling back, when the traffic cut him off middle chase. When he finally caught up to her she already sat in the waiting room. The AC was turned up and the air felt nice on their hot skin. He dropped next to her, his handmade map on his lap, his head turned into detective mode. "You promised, don't forget after the next one I get to ask again." he foreshadowed for the heiress.

"Whatever…" she giggled watching the crowd which came to the same bus they were waiting for.

She stole glances at Dipper who was so immersed in his journal, that he didn't even realize that a group of young girls fawned over him. It was just like back then, no matter how many girls watched him with small hearts in their eyes he would never realize. She yawned and watched the group give up on the nerd when they spotted her. How wrong they were, if they knew what their relationship was, they would just jump into his lap and drool all over the tall boy.

What was so good about oblivious guys anyway? Like Pacifica knew. She for example never liked the type, well let alone that one summer crush. Which in the end took three summers and the year's in-between. They were still half an hour early for their ride, and before she realized a pack of guys sat next to her.

Coincidentally hitting her shoulder now and then. Yeah like Pacifica was dumb enough to eat that. She watched them from the corner of her eye, putting her duffel bag on her lap.

Dipper didn't seem to care about any of his surroundings and totally disregarded her situation. Actually, just when she was thinking about this, his head turned to her. He stared at her for a moment before shrugging again.

"What?" Pacifica squinted.

"Want something from the vending machine?" Dipper already stood up, looking for beverages.

Her disgusted glint was enough to answer for the boy. "Wait here!"

"Got it…" she huffed, resting her elbows on her bag and leaning to Dipper's empty seat.

The boy walked up to the beaten up machine. There wasn't such a great variety, yet he decided to get something for the prissy girl too. He glanced back to watch the girls swat away yet another guy who tried his luck with her. Poor souls.

Why didn't Pacifica just go home? He finally found his target, pushing in coin after coin. But the machine decided this wasn't the time he could get anything easily. Looking around he turned to his last resort. He kicked the machine so it finally bent to his wishes...

"Ah , sorry!" a girl cried behind him.

Dipper flinched at the sudden voice "No, I am…yeah sorry…" he rubbed the back of his neck.

The girl before him fidgeted, she looked cute. Short red hair just like Wendy's but her body language was way too timid to compare. She had a nice round face, the more Dipper looked at her the cuter the girl seem.

"Ahm I think your girlfriend is waiting." she finally said totally breaking Dipper's train of thoughts.

"She is not my girlfriend…" he said finally getting his can, and putting in more coin to get the next one for the forceful heiress outside.

The girl blushed hard, even her forehead became bright red. "Well, she is staring at us…"

"Wait, what?" Dipper almost let the cans go. Turning to the blonde's direction. It was true the gal watched them and when she realized that Dipper caught her, she just smirked.

"Are, are you taking the next bus?" she pushed a lock behind her ears, averting her eyes.

"Ah, yes…" his hands were full with the two can. He felt a familiar excitement. Even his ears felt a bit hotter than before.

"Me and my friends are taking it to next town…" her eyes finally found his, pointing back at a group of girls. "If you guys want to, come and let's talk or something…"

Dipper's fingers tapped on the metal can. "Yeah, okay well…see you then?" he felt his cheeks flush.

"Well…okay…" she said sidestepping him and fidgeting with her coins.

Dipper power walked back to the snickering blonde, her eyes almost made a crescent moon while hiding a little chuckle behind her hand.

"What?" The boy asked pulling his cap more into his face.

"Someone was just hit on~" she drawled, jumping when Dipper elbowed her side. She laughed heartedly now. "So was she victorious?"

"Whatever you mean?"

"Come on Sir Dippingsouce!" Pacifica leaned forward peeking under the cap, searching for the embarrassed guy's eyes.

Instead of the answer, she felt a cold can hit her cheeks, and she had to be fast to catch it.

"There drink it and try to quiet down." he whispered when the red headed girl jogged back to her group, glancing at his direction.

"You are such a nerd." she sighed opening the can and chugging down its content.

Dipper only grumbled as a response but opened his drink too. When the vehicle finally arrived, they marched for it.

Dipper was suddenly stopped by the girl snatching his cap, then dusting it off. She smiled sincerely at the mad guy. "I am confiscating this" she pushed his worn cap to her head, pulling her pony out at the backside.

Dipper felt a smile creep up on his face too. "Why exactly?" he tried to snatch it back, however Pacifica dodged him expertly.

"I'll tell you on the road?" she smirked under the cap.

Even if he didn't really like Pacifica back then, they were on rather good terms with everything. It was a shame that he considered her something that dragged him back.

He laughed and pushed the cap more into the blonde's head. "Good deal!" It was nice like this. Moments like this and in the glade, times like those were really nice. Even though it was Pacifica. No more like because it was Pacifica.

"Come on Nerd!" she broke their stupor, dragging the boy after her and making their way to the end of the bus.

Dipper followed her, putting up her duffel bag and ordering her to take the window seat before she could cause any more trouble. When she tried to protest he simply pushed her down to her seat. This way he could at least partly hinder her in whatever plan she had for the road.

Then he dropped next to her opening the holey map and his new star map, in the small place he needed the girl's help and he double checked the places.

"How did you know it was really the Constellations?" she asked leaning over the Journal where Dipper noted something again.

"You see…" he started while opening his last hint from Mabel. "…she wrote 'gloom y' right." he pointed out.

"Yeah, so what your face was gloomy." she mocked.

"Yeah, thanks." he flicked the girl's nose, who in return elbowed his side. "So, why the desperate space between M and Y?"

Pacifica shrugged.

"Because of gloom, as in the night, and darkness!" he said excitedly. "Mabel really is great with puzzles." Dipper looked happy.

"She is…" she nodded.

They both looked up when someone stood just beside them. The redhead leaned over the seat before them and smiled down at the busy guy.

"Sorry for interrupting…" she pushed her hair out of her face. "…we are sitting in the front…" she finished already waving and escaping.

"Hm~"

Dipper felt his neck heat up, as the blonde tilted to his direction. Their shoulders touching. "What?"

"Wanna go?" she asked already in his face, he felt the baseball cap's bill touch his cheek.

"And leave you back?" he asked mockingly and pushing the girl back to her place. "Actually sounds great."

"Hah, cut me some slack nerd…" she rolled her eyes. "But for real, redheads are your weakness right?" she smirked. "Go for it I bet you haven't got a girlfriend in ages."

"Yeah, yeah…" Dipper really missed his cap, he just wanted to hide under it. Rather that, than listening to the blonde's accusations. For his own surprise, he rose from his seat.

"Good luck!" Pacifica cheered quietly.

"I don't need luck," he smiled weakly "I have a plan!" he felt ashamed when Pacifica laughed heartedly applauding for him.

* * *

 **A.N.:** Sorry for being one day late, hope you enjoyed this chapter!


	4. Chapter 4

The ride took 3 hours and a half, and for the first half, Dipper was away flirting. The girl was happy because finally she had time to think through things. Her fingers tapped on her phone, looking through her contacts she stopped by a particular one. She hummed pushing the dial then releasing before it could actually call the contact.

"It's still too early…"

"What is?"

She almost dropped her phone jumping in her seat. Dipper snickered sitting back to his seat. He was all smiles.

"You almost killed me, Pines!" Pacifica pushed her heart back to its place while showing her phone back to her pocket.

Dipper only snickered some more at the Northwest's clumsiness.

"Soooo~" she drawled finally when she spotted the girl group depart. "How did it go?" she cranked her neck watching the boy's silly expression. "Spill the beans." she smirked.

Rather than answering Dipper put up his fist nodding for the girl to choose. She waited a moment before she went for the right one. When the boy opened it, it was empty, so she snorted and pointed at the left one. Empty again.

"Nothing, really…" she slumped back "…you should have at least got her number."

"Nah," he smirked pushing his cap deeper into the girl's head. " she was too much like me."

"Your plan failed." Pacifica deadpanned.

"Nope," he pushed a lock of blonde hair behind the girl's ear, then with a light bell sound a golden coin appeared. "magic never fails." he smirked rolling the coin on his knuckles.

Pacifica sat there dumbfounded, still touching the hot skin where the boy just touched her. She felt her face heat but ordered her body to hide it. There was no way in hell that she would show this smug guy, how he caught her too for a second.

"Magic…" she fidgeted with her watch, averting her eyes from the guy. "…this is just a trick. The real magic is elsewhere, right?" her head felt heavy for some reason.

"You may be right," Dipper's voice came from a mile away. " but with girls, it works." he chuckled. Pacifica was sure that he said something else too but she felt her head tilt to the cold glass, then she lost focus.

She saw that it started raining on their way, but somehow it was distant. She listened to the bus's soft noise, the raindrops on the glass tapped slowly and she felt like they hit directly her face. On her left Dipper mumbled about something weird he read in the local newspaper. She heard him chew on his pen, then the world became dark.

She was still in her seat, but nothing existed around them. The window and the seat were her only anchor to reality. She felt like this before, she made it herself, it wasn't really time just yet to see this again. In the cold darkness, she felt her right hand itch. She cast her eyes down, watching a thin light blue line draw on her skin. The itching became more and more unbearable. However, her other hand and whole body felt like cement underwater.

The low buzzing from before got louder, and she was already on the edge of sanity, watching in horror as a mark slowly burned into her skin.

"Say Pacifica…"

She jolted, almost hitting her head to the seat before her. Dipper's voice cleared up the darkness around her instantly.

"Are you okay?" concerned he lifted his hat from the blonde's head. "Did I wake you?"

"No…" she mumbled focusing on the boy. "…what is it?"

Dipper pushed his journal to the girl, pointing at the clipping he got in the diner from before. The news was about things mysterious disappearing then reappearing. The 'victim' declared that whenever she wanted to use an item, she would just prepare it. However when she looked the next moment it was missing. She even talked about the fact that later it would show up at the same place where she put it.

Pacifica read the notes next to it, the boy already had many theories considering the anomaly. She smiled watching the boy's handwriting all quirky and hasty. Full with question marks and scratched ideas.

"What do you think?" he asked sitting on the edge of his seat.

"That you had your head full with this while you 'tried' to woo that redhead…" she quipped tapping at the clipping.

"Come on, seriously…" he sighed.

"Okay, here it is." she huffed, taking the pen from the shocked guy. She circled the woman in the photo. "She has a mascara right behind her ear, just like a pencil." she lifted the page so Dipper could examine it too. "My bet is, she has a habit of putting her pencils there so she makes this mistake with her 'items'. Which I bet are makeup."

"Some deduction." Dipper mocked his lips already pouting on the missed mystery.

Pacifica chuckled, the nerd was just too gullible. "Well that, or like…a mischievous poltergeist?" her fingertips tapped on her chin.

"You think so too?" his tone changed filled with joy again.

The blonde nodded, assuring the guy about his beliefs.

"Maybe we should go back when we have found Mabel." absentmindedly he put Pacifica's theory on paper.

"We?" her eyes widened with surprise.

"Yeah, Mabel and Me." he nodded his gaze still on the paper.

Pacifica felt disappointment wash over her, and she tear the boy's cap from her head. Tossing it into his face, fuming.

Poor Dipper didn't even realize where he made a mistake.

For the rest of the ride, Pacifica was sulking. She pushed her headset's earbuds deep in her ear, totally locking out any more idiotic comment coming from the Pines boy. When the bus finally arrived at their destination, she jumped and crawled over the boy, taking every opportunity to step on him by her way.

She yanked down her bag, almost hitting Dipper across his face by the process. She snickered when the boy shrieked again, for the second time that day.

Shadows have already gotten longer when they stepped down from the vehicle. Dipper took a deep breath from the fresh air, it still smelled like summer rain. He watched Pacifica stomp her way down to the vending machine, pushing coins into the machine with just a bit too much force.

He scratched the back of his neck, contemplating to put the girl on the first bus that would take her back to her home. Nonetheless, he was afraid of the girl's wrath. This was the first time that the two of them spent such a long time together. Even if it was exhausting it wasn't as bad as he imagined the first day when she declared to follow him through with this chase. Watching the girl stop then trip over something just to stand still for a minute before hissing at the culprit, a pebble.

She had two cans in her hands offering one for the boy.

"Here…" she pushed the cold drink to his chest.

"Thanks, I guess." his smile forced and when the blonde didn't pay attention he held the can next to his ear, to hear if it was shaken or not.

Just to be sure he put it in his bag, finishing out their map and checking it again. They were at the right place but the map only helped them till here. He felt Pacifica tiptoe next to him glancing down the paper herself.

"So what now?" her hands rested at her waist, and her body language screamed anger.

"I don't really know…" he confessed, pushing the paper into his pocket.

"Come on, like use your dork powers or something." her voice crackled.

"What is your problem now?" Dipper sighed. He didn't mind the insult her tone, however, started to get on his nerves.

"Nothing!" she flipped her ponytail storming over to the bench and dropping down to it.

"That's really great, can't wait to see when you actually have a problem!" he shouted jut to get the finger from the rich prick. "Snotty…idiot…" he mumbled while looking around the station.

It was a standard bus station with benches, a station, a big sign about the town and its spectacles. A big board with departure and arrival times. No matter how many times he paced up and down the idea just did not come.

Pacifica waited patiently, well patiently enough for her own account. She rose from the bench when Dipper took off his hat to ruffle his hair for the tenth time. She stepped next to him, and just like any other time he didn't seem to care for her being there. She fell to his pace and she walked around with him, checking everything he checked. After half an hour of fruitless searching, she had enough.

"Okay, listen!" she grabbed the tattooed arm and dragged him to the City board. "If you think I'll sleep here, you are stupider than I thought." she scanned the map for a motel or something still holding the dork's arm in an iron grip.

"Pacifica, just go and get a bed somewhere then text me where to go when I am finished." he sighed taking back his arm.

"Wow." he tone was super flat, she rolled her eyes "Such chivalry…thanks…" she pouted looking through the list on the right corner.

She stopped when her eyes landed on the number '08 – Monument'. She leaned forward squinting before she had the chance to think it through her finger touched the board. It was dirty but it had a really funny texture just around the number. Her fingertip followed the line around the number, she bit her lip while trying to reconstruct the shape in her head. Pacifica clicked her tongue in frustration.

"Hey, nerd!" she waved for the boy, still holding her position, trying to figure out what she found.

"What now?" Dipper walked next to the girl, watching her huff at the board furiously. "Didn't found a fancy one?" he smirked, sidestepping from her fist.

"What's that?" she pushed the guy's hand to the board making him flinch at the sudden movement.

Dipper's brows knotted for a moment and he did just the same as Pacifica before. It was sure that someone deliberately draw something over the board, with some kind of plastic substance. Transparent nonetheless. He felt Pacifica's eyes on him, and he hurriedly pushed his backpack to her hands.

For his surprise she obediently took it, holding it for him till he searched around it for a paper and pencil. Her eyes even became bigger when the realization hit her. He felt a smug smile crawl on his face as he pushed the paper to the board and started to shade the paper with the pencil. After a minute, it was obvious that the hint was left behind by Mabel. On the paper, a Maple leaf's lines stood out.

"It's the Monument then!" Pacifica almost jumped up happily, just to realize her actions and settle down again.

"Maybe…" Dipper scratched his chin.

"What do you mean maybe?" the girl frowned, jumping a bit when Dipper took back his backpack.

He walked by the girl, sitting down the same bench she was relaxing on before. His mind completely wrapped in the 'hows' and 'whys'. There were still some people loitering around, and he still had an itch he needed to satisfy. He didn't see Pacifica tap her feet right before him, and wasn't ready for the scream which almost made his ears bleed.

"EARTH TO DIPPER!" she shouted making a cone out of her hands multiplying the effect.

"What?" he had to steady himself on the back of the bench.

"Don't 'what' me!" her hands held his face, and she almost snarled. "Tell me right away why we still didn't leave this place?"

He watched her lips become thin with the withheld anger. He was quite amused at the girl's antics. With her rapid changes in body language and her short temper when it came to patience. She had none. Unfortunately, for him this amusement must have shown on his face, because the girl's became redder by the second, pressing his cheeks with more force.

"You see…" his hand softly touched the girl's and she let him drag them from his face. "the Monument is an hour by foot and I do not want to take another bus today."

"More the reason to leave already…" her skin broke out in goosebumps when a light breeze hit her side.

Not to mention it already became dark, and even though it was alright to spend a night in the wilderness, spending it in a dirty bus stop was totally out of question. There were only one guard and a homeless man beside them here. If Pacifica could do something about it, they would be out of here by now.

"No actually I need to check something else." he said still holding the girl in place by her wrists.

"Then do it fast!" she yanked her hands away, hiding them behind her back right away. Her face was still pink with anger and she waited for the boy to finally enlighten her about this 'one thing' he still needed to check.

"We need to be alone for that." he said already forging a plan, on how to get rid of the guard.

"Oh, now, we need to be alone, huh…" she mumbled kicking a pebble from her way.

Fortunately, Dipper did not register her words, rather walked up to the homeless man, who in Pacifica's eyes, looked kind of like McGucket. She watched him, give the man their remaining food and a bill. Then he trotted back to Pacifica.

"Now watch." he whispered to the blonde and leaned back, pushing something into his pocket.

So she did, she watched the man walk up to the guard, he gestured heavily causing the man before him frown. Then without warning, he pushed the guard. Pacifica gasped, covering her mouth fast when the hobo continued his ministrations and overstepped the spellbound man she smiled a bit. He ran up to the info booth and he. Pacifica hid behind her palms, he unzipped his pants and well, the blonde covered her face. She should have covered her ears, though, because when the hobo started to tend his business the guard found his voice and lunged at the old man.

Yet the homeless man maneuvered himself and run for it. With the guard on his heels, they left the station.

Pacifica sat there, mouth wide open, she slowly turned to Dipper who whistled on her right. "You…" she gulped searching for her voice "…you told him to…"

"I just asked him to distract the guard." he reassured her while dragging her after him. "The only thing that is important now, that it worked." he said, but his smirk gave him away.

"You are disgusting…" she snorted finally stepping into his pace.

"You are prude…" Dipper stopped before the storage boxes. "…don't tell me you never did you know what outside."

"Never!" even the assumption was beyond her.

Dipper shrugged and found the locker with the number eight on it. He tried to pry it open with his fingers but it didn't budge. Then he fished out a small metal piece from his pocket, he pushed it into the little lock, then he pushed a hook into it too. With experienced fingers, he started to rotate the little metal piece while listening for any clicks from the bolt.

Pacifica stood behind him her eyes wide in surprise. "Isn't that illegal?" she whispered leaning forward.

"When there's no cop around anything is legal." his voice was filled with mischief when the lock finally gave in and it opened the little storage box.

"That's rich coming from you…" she huffed and waited for the boy to open the door finally.

The small box was dark, but it held three items. An envelope titled for Dipper, a small paper box with 'Paz' written all over it and a book. Dipper went for the envelope first, opening it in the dark wasn't his best idea. He almost saw nothing so pushed it into his backpack, for now, he let Pacifica take the box addressed to her, and he grabbed the book.

When he was about to open it, however, they heard a whistle, and both of them freeze. Heavy boots stomped over the concrete and they knew the guard was back without turning.

Pacifica did not move, but her leg muscles were already flexed for the run, her fingers gripped down the box. "Illegal, it is!" she whispered.

Dipper jumped back from the metal boxes, grabbing Pacifica's hand and he yanked her after him, as they tried to escape.

The girl was sure she heard him laugh a bit while they ran, but it didn't help her mood knowing that the obviously angry man was chasing them. Her legs carried her after the boy who was taking turns and corners fast, cutting their way through the city. The weather was nice, so there were more people on the streets than necessary. They bumped into more and more people on their way, Dipper didn't slow down even after ten minutes. So Pacifica had to stop him before a convenience store.

Dragging him inside, she heaved before boxing into his shoulder. "What the heck…" she panted.

The boy on the other hand just shrugged, he was in the same state as the girl. Adrenaline seemed to help, though, so after the girl finally bought some necessary items they finally left.

"You know…" Pacifica bit into a doughnut, "…it if poffible that…" she gulped realizing what an un-lady like act that was. "It is possible that the key is at the Monument."

"Maybe but this was faster." he said walking at her side, still looking for a place to sit and read their next clue.

"If we need the bus tomorrow, how are we going to get it, hm?" she poked the guys shoulder multiple times. "What if the same guard will be on duty?" poke "What if…"

"That's enough!" the boy grabbed the girl's finger, gripping it a bit before releasing it. "Let's see the clue before we make any more assumptions than this."

They found a small coffee house on the main street and they both agreed to look at their new treasures there. They took the far seats in the back, hoping that other than the waitress won't bother them. Her fingers tapped on the box, which was decorated with her nickname and some flowers. Mabel must have put a lot of love into this one, the blonde smiled but waited for Dipper to open the letter first.

He fumbled a bit with it, he even let it fall then swearing he dropped it on the table. This time, it was only a letter and an old key with a numbered little plaque on the rusty ring.

Pacifica took it twirling it between her fingers, making it jingle. Her brows knotted when the boy read the letter in a hushed voice rather than showing it to her.

"Hey, Sir Dippingsauce!"

He could have left that out, but he didn't and it amused Pacifica to no end. How this dork of twins took each other so seriously, even when they goofed around.

He cleared his throat flushing a bit because of the nickname. "I bet you picked that lock, rather than going to the Monument, huh?"

"See, told you!" the blonde smirked picking rusty pieces off of the ring.

Dipper just rolled his eyes and continued. "This time, you did great, I hope you were slow solving it, though. If you did it right I am in trouble." Dipper glanced at the blonde who was eagerly waiting for the rest of the letter. "So I propose you the following options. One you could try to decipher the letter I attached."

Pacifica leaned forward peeking into the thick paper in the boy's hand. Without success because Dipper promptly hid it from her eyes. She pouted her lower lip trembling a little, just like before it didn't have any effect on the smug guy.

"The second options is the book." he tapped his fingers on the cover.

For the first time, the blonde took the time to examine the object, it had a heavy leather cover. Black with, as much as she could guess, silver lining and title. The paper was already yellow and it had the smell that most of her old books did back in the Manor. She opened it, and spine cracked, silently crying under her fingers. The pages were, however, silk soft and only a few pages had dirt on them.

She flipped through the pages already knowing the second option.

"It has mysteries considering this town. I heard that one is peculiarly famous, not to mention its peak is said to be on the 10th of August." Dipper voice was filled with more joy after each word he read. He glanced at the book, the blonde was holding protectively.

"Don't even think about it…" she snarled looming over the old copy. "You hear me…"

"Listen to the rest." he said already searching for openings in Pacifica's iron grip. "So…" he cleared his throat "Knowing you, you'll chose the mystery giving me an escape, and several days gap." he folded up the paper and put the rest on the table. "She wishes me good luck in the end, and that's it."

"Figure out the cipher." Pacifica held the book like her life hung on it.

"Come on show it to me…" his hand slowly advanced to the leathery copy. "…promise to just check it out…" his voice was almost like a lullaby.

"I'll, when you finished with the new clue." she leaned back so becoming out of the reach of the mesmerized guy.

His forehead creased and he scanned the paper before him. It was a page full of scrambled letters. Letters neatly sorted into lines. They were words, in a cipher Dipper though he figured out first. However as he went on his brows knotted even more and more. He grumbled, he assumed it was the Caesar cipher, but it wasn't the case. So he tried the Atbash cipher too just to fail again.

Did Mabel even know this many ciphers, the fact that this was handwritten and not printed suggested that Mabel actually knew her way with this code? He scribbled something onto the paper next to the original one. It took him half an hour to realize the answer.

He glanced up, Pacifica was reading the object of his desire. She lazily flipped through the pages her eyes scanning them. Sometimes she would chew on her lips and her brows ticked here and there. He was just too thirsty for that mysterious book. In his sister's letter, it said that she wrote it three days earlier, which meant they just solved the star map too fast for her taste. Getting closer to her by three days already on their third day.

He watched Pacifica smile a bit before flipping to the next page where her face actually broke into a grin. She looked cute like this, Dipper had to remind himself about how the girl was when she actually opened her mouth.

"Hey," he made Pacifica flinch, almost dropping the book. "I have a good and a bad news."

"Start with the good one." she demanded shutting the book and sinking it into her bag.

"I know this cipher." he tapped the paper between them.

"Great what is the bad news then?" she leaned forward looking at his notes, disappointed at the lack of translations.

"It's the Vigenère cipher."

"Vigenère cipher?" her head tilted without her realizing it. She pushed her index finger to her lips, she remembered something like this vaguely.

"Let me show you…" the Pines boy took a new blank paper and drew a line after another until he had a grid. 26 rows and 26 columns. "…we need to know the Caesar cipher for this." he started to write up the ABC.

"I know that one." the blonde lunged forward hitting the table's side.

"You do?" his eyes widened in surprise.

"Wow…way to overreact…" Pacifica sulked watching the guy still writing in every row. "But the first row isn't that one, though…"

"Yeah because the first one has zero shifts, however from the second row it slowly shifts until it's a full circle again." he finished the last row with two 'Z'. He circled the first row and the first column.

"You seem to know it, so what's the problem?" she took away the grid filled with letters and tried to get to the solution.

"Well the Vigenère cipher needs a key." his pen drummed on the wooden table, but he stopped fast when the guy by the next table turned with too much force.

"A key?" she lifted the rusty key.

Both of them watched the object for a while before Dipper grabbed at it. Yet his movement was no match for Pacifica's reflexes. She yanked it up fast, leaving the boy hung.

"It's not the one Dipper." her other hand was held up in a halting motion. "This one is for the mys-" she regretted her words just a second too late.

"See I have to see that book after all!" he smirked, trying his luck with the key again.

"No!" she said already jumping up from her seat to put some distance between them. "Dipper that's just Mabel's trap, so she can have a head start again." she pushed the bag's strap over her head already backing away from the guy.

Dipper easily pushed every paper into his backpack, smirking and matching the girl's pace. "What if it isn't?"

They continued their slow and weird dance to the street, they stopped only when Pacifica finally bumped into someone. She lost balance, but her body turned just in time, saving herself from hitting the concrete headfirst.

But it didn't save her bag being raped by Dipper, he opened the zipper fast grabbing at the book on the top of her clothes. He chuckled victoriously when the small blonde tried her best to get the copy back. He actually had to hold the girl down by her shoulders finally stopping her bouncing up and down in anger.

"You stupid...DORK!" she shrieked before deciding to kick the boy in the shin.

"That's uncalled for!" Dipper hissed, stepping away from the furious girl.

"Search for the key!" her shouts bounced back from the walls, and some of the passer-by's stopped watching the fuming girl.

"I'll try my best, but you must admit, it is too much of a coincident." he jogged back to the girl hugging her shoulders. "Let's find a room or something."

Pacifica shrugged him off and stomped away putting at least three meters between them. "You are too gullible..."


	5. Chapter 5

The next morning came faster than Dipper hoped. Mostly because he was up all night reading the book his sister left for him. Even if it was a trap it was just the kind he would gladly walk into. As he closed the book and let it hit his chest he had a silly grin on his face. This town had quite a ghost activity. Back in the 1900 half of the city square burned down, the number of the victims was over 60 and those are just the ones that they were able to identify. As sad this story was as much excitement it caused for Dipper. For the last two months, he was traveling all around the northwest Pacific and even then didn't he find anything like this.

There were ghost sightings and cruel legends here and there. Alien abductions were the craze between the farmers right now. He returned every time unsatisfied, all the thrill he had when he first put his feet in Gravity Falls was gone by now. There weren't mystical creatures just anywhere, just like one could not just find a practicing witch every here and there.

But this book was just his kind of thing, the one that Mabel mentioned seemed the most promising, though. In the fire, an old ballet studio was also burned to the ground. Only the building's walls remained, and after 25 years it was rebuilt and restocked. At the beginning there were nothing out of ordinary, but when the owner decided to redesign it into a dance studio, giving it the same name. The first 'accident' happened. The students confessed feeling bad whenever they stepped inside the building and told that sometimes they could see another figure dance with them in the mirror.

So after one of the younglings tried to break the mirror they shut the place up. The coming years it was either left alone or used as a storage. The book told that in 1999 they tried their hand at the ballet business again. For the time being it was alright again, but in 2010, one of the students's made a fire. Attempting to burn the place down, he was later diagnosed with multiple personality disorder and put away in a psychiatry.

The fire took place on the tenth of August of 1965. The attempted fire too took place on the 10th of August. It was too big of a coincident to call it that.

Dipper rubbed his eyes, for the last few days he didn't sleep well. If he was able to sleep at all. He stretched touching the hot lamp just above his bed, hissing at the pain. He turned the light off, the light coming from the window was enough for now. Slouching back into his bed he turned to catch a just waking blonde on his right. They rented this room for two days, for now, his companion was silent for the rest of the evening but he was sure that this was just the calm before the storm.

Pacifica rolled to her side, blinking lazily and yawning, then pulling the blanket over her head mumbling something. Dipper watched her breathing become regular again, he had to give it to the girl she knew how to enjoy cheap luxuries. Her face even lighted up when they found out that this place had a bathroom with every room. Well, it really was a miracle considering the low rates and its outer appearance.

The clock showed 6 am and it was finally time to sleep a bit, but his brain just couldn't slow don't. He was really eager to investigate this mystery but they still had to conclude their chase. Well on one hand he had the chance to catch his sister way before their birthday, on the other hand if he left now he had to wait another year before coming back to investigate the building. But he didn't found the keyword for the cipher. For the blonde's sake, he tried several words that could have been used by Mabel to code this message.

First, he wasn't even sure this really was the Vigenère cipher, maybe it was just used to hide the actual location which could be hidden in any row of the 10 rows long message. Secondly, if he found the key it still didn't guarantee that he would be able to translate the full message. The chances that the 'key' was hidden in the haunted building was close to zero. Mabel even wrote it as a second option, which meant that the solution was actually hidden somewhere between the lines again.

Speaking of the key. Pacifica finally sat up in her bed, her hair a mess, she stretched to her hearts content. Her eyes slowly scanned her surroundings, for a second confusion clouded her light blue gaze before realizing where she was. Her head turned in slow motion to her roommate, squinting at him before rubbing her eyes than looking at him for real.

"You look like shit…" she mumbled putting down her feet just to snap it back up. She grumbled about the cold floor then rose from the bed.

"Well, you don't look so good yourself…" Dipper yawned, slowly sinking under his blanket. He saw the girl giving him the finger before the picture darkened and fell asleep.

When he next wake the first thing he saw was the blonde looming over his notes by the small table. She tapped her lips with the pencil she had, her head resting on her palm. He watched her put the pencil down and slide her finger on her phone to unlock it. Dipper bet she was searching method's to solve the cipher. It was refreshing to watch the girl try, her brows knitting and her nose wrinkle every now and then.

He glanced up at the clock, it was only half past 7. So he only slept for an hour and a half, he forced himself on his elbows. His eyes hurt, and he found the book under his cover just beside him. If he had a girlfriend this would be like waking up after an affair.

Pacifica turned to him, but resumed her work right after, not paying any attention to the boy. Her cheeks were puffed up and she frowned at the paper before her.

Dipper just realized that she was humming again, the same song over and over again. He wanted to ask about it but decided to leave it after yesterday's events. He pushed up himself getting out of the bed and shuffled to the bathroom's door. He glanced down the girl for a last time before disappearing behind the door. He used only ice cold water so his senses would wake faster, not to mention his brain. He had to make them stay for two more days. Feeding that to Pacifica seemed impossible, though.

The girl only spoke to him when it was absolutely necessary, other than that she would play the mute game. Well if she wanted to guilt trip him, she had to wake up sooner. Mabel made him almost immune to those. He stepped out of the shower and searching for a towel he tripped in his own pants. He cursed before kicking it away. The old denim clothing was by now dirty and creased. He had shorts in his backpack so he didn't really care for it. He let the water fill the sink and pushed his trousers into the water, lazily kneaded out a nasty grass fleck then left it.

When he got out of the bathroom Pacifica was already gone. Her notes scattered on the table but her phone has disappeared as well. Dipper huffed grabbing his bag, he took his clean clothes and put it on before the girl would come back.

The first two hour alone was a bliss, the second felt relaxing however when the girl still wasn't back afternoon a cold feeling wrapped around his heart. He sat at the edge of his bed, his hands clasped. His feet tapped and he felt a sweat drop roll down his template. After another 2 hours, he jumped from the bed pacing in the small room. Her bag still rested at the far end of her bed, so she didn't leave for home. Dipper's brain turned again, maybe she was hit on again, and she let her mouth lose control. All the horrifying images of the girl laying in a dark alley filled his head. Or she was under arrest because the guard caught her.

He ruffled his hair in agony, he forced himself to calm down and he sunk back into his bed. One more hour, he will wait one more hour before he starts searching for the girl. His fingers tapped on his knee, and he almost dropped from the mattress when the door finally opened. He remained in his spot deliberately looking out the window.

"Where have you been?" his tone was too harsh.

The girl made noise with something behind his back, not answering. So Dipper turned to her direction, he felt his jaw flex, and his fist clenched on his knee. "I asked you something."

Pacifica looked up, meeting his angry gaze. Her nose wrinkled and a mocking expression tinted her face. "I was out." she spat.

"I know that, but where were you?" the boy felt his anger rise, why he wasn't sure himself.

"Look," she ignored him, stepping right over his legs to sink into the small chair next to the messy table. "what I do, isn't your business." she lifted a paper scanning it. "So don't concern yourself."

"It is my business until we are in this together!" Dipper's voice rose with every word, and even though he thought he was intimidating the girl didn't even flinch.

"Oh, how convenient!" she turned to him her arms crossed. "NOW, we are in this together?" she didn't back down. "Sure didn't seem so yesterday!" she slapped the table making multiple papers fly and fall from it.

Dipper gulped down the knot he didn't realize he had till now. He felt his muscles flex, he was way too angry to say anything to that. He knew that the girl was right about his decision, but he would have rather died than to confess that.

"If you leave at least write something, damn it!" he shouted.

Finally making the girl flinch, totally breaking her defense. Her eyes widened in surprise.

"I was worried you know!" the boy threw his pillow to the wall, putting out some steam.

"You were?" Pacifica's voice became small, and way too vulnerable suddenly, totally throwing Dipper off.

"Of course!" Dipper fell back to his bed still mumbling about how stupid the girl was.

For several minutes, they both remained silent.

"Thank you…"

It was like a knife cutting through the air, the boy stayed motionless on his bed. The words and the tone sent electricity to his veins. He knew if he was to look at the girl right now he would be in trouble. It sounded way too honest and affectionate to just answer. So he didn't he just rolled to his side, hiding his head under his arm, still confused about his physical changes in the last five minutes.

He heard her shuffle the papers and scribble something.

"I was at the Monument." she finally said, her tone returning to normal. "There was a key hidden in one of the statues hand." he heard the jingle of something small and metal. "Nothing considering the cipher, though."

Again Dipper didn't answer, but he felt his anger totally nullify.

"We should check that building, huh?"

"Really?!" the boy sprung up.

Pacifica's lips were curled into a mischievous grin. She knew she had the boy with the mystery kink.

"On one condition!" she lifted her finger to stop the fidgeting guy. "If we solve this first we will leave."

Dipper watched her and thought about it, it took time to find a key. If it really wasn't in the building it could be any word from the letter, he needed time to try each. Chances were he wouldn't be able to solve it before the tenth anyway.

"Deal?" she asked holding out her pinkie.

Dipper grinned, hooking his into her finger "Deal!"

For the rest of the day they tried out half of the words for the coded message. Pacifica tried her best but when the clock hit 10pm she threw in her towel finally deciding to sleep.

Dipper rubbed his eyes, yesterday's lack of sleep slowly crept on him. He looked at the original message trying his best to just finally get the clue. He leaned back holding up the paper and sighed. He glanced up and he almost fell back with his chair. He grabbed the table to secure himself and grinned madly. If he held the paper up to the light, there was a thin line cutting the message into two. Which meant there could have been two keys all along.

He turned to his companions direction almost waking the soundly asleep girl. When he watched her almost angelic sleeping face he decided to try some of the words on the second part alone.

None of the words helped this time either, he grumbled running his hand through his hair again. He reread Mabel's note once again, and for the first time, it hit him. This was the first one from all her notes that didn't mention Pacifica. With hurried steps, he ran to his backpack taking out the earlier message. He remembered correctly even in the video she mentioned someone who might help. However, this one didn't even hint any companion. He picked up a blank paper and tried the girl's name with the first half, without success. When he tried the second part, words finally surfaced.

He bounced in his seat a wide grin crowning his features. However, his smile turned to a frown in minutes when the message finally started to make sense. While it was only one long sentence he had to break the parts so he got an intelligent text.

* Dipper, if you found out this code you are a genius! Congrats! I bet you want to know why I wrote this separately yet almost in the same way. Well because if she is with you this is the part what she just can't read! You heard it, can't read!

If you want to investigate the Dance Hall, do not take her with you! You absolutely can't!

As for the first half, the key is DANCEHALL, dumbass, you figured PACIFICA out but couldn't take the bait with the old building's name? I even left the key! THE KEY!*

Dipper stared at the paper which he just filled with his sister's words, and frowned. Why would she tell her to keep this secret from Pacifica? Weren't they friends? The boy eyed the girl suspiciously, maybe everything till now was just a fraud. He leaned back, chewing down on his pen. His brain spun and he had to take a deep breath. No, they absolutely were friends, Mabel went out of her way to leave presents and gifts for her. Going for the length to tell her to come with him.

He gripped his pen and started to translate the first half with the keyword.

*Hello! Are you missing me? Come and catch me! HAHA! Good job finding THE KEY! wink wink

Hope you enjoy your stay in that mystic city because the next one maybe the last!*

The rest of the message was the new address where she hid right now. Dipper slumped down in his chair. He promised to tell, but he really wanted that mystery. Their next goal was only two hours with bus or car. He took the solutions and folded them until he couldn't bend the paper anymore. Pushing them to the depths of his short's pocket. He forced his body to crawl over to his bed he tucked himself in.

His gaze rested on Pacifica's innocent face, and he felt his throat clench. He mumbled into his blanket.

"Just this once, sorry." with that he fell asleep.

When he woke the next day he felt refreshed, stretching in the bed, well wasn't one of his greatest idea of all time. He hit his knuckles hard in the bedhead, not to mention that the sound actually alarmed Pacifica too.

"Wha…what?" she blinked at him, she already sprung up ready for anything.

"Sorry, just me being clumsy…" he apologized nursing his hurting hands.

Pacifica fell back to her pillow face first, nuzzling her nose into it. "Issokay…" she mumbled.

He glanced at the clock it was already 9 am and they just rose from their dreams. Which were uncommonly calm given the last two days. Dipper didn't really remember any night without Bill, even if it was only a symbol in his dreams or he himself. He shook his head.

As for Pacifica, it seemed like her nightmares were also subsiding. After the incident at the glade, she had slept through all nights. He watched the girl fidget under the blanket before she finally decided to get up. Her bangs were all out of place some of it sticking to her forehead other defying gravity. Every morning it was her fist move to rearrange those, only after that did she actually get out of bed.

Dipper got up slowly, pulling his shorts back on. Middle yawn he pushed his hands into his pocket searching for his phone. When his finger caught a small piece of paper he froze. Memories from the previous night flooded into his mind. He turned slowly to find Pacifica already over their notes from yesterday.

"Hey!" he drawled. "Wanna have a morning coffee?" he asked his hands still in his pockets. Almost like fearing to get discovered by those sky blue eyes.

Pacifica looked up at him with mild surprise, "You sure, don't you want to work on this?" she lifted the paper drawing circles in the air with her hands.

"Let's relax a bit," he shrugged, trying his best 'I don't care' attitude. "I saw a pastry shop on the way here." he fished out his wallet justifying his actions. "I'll treat you as an apology?"

"You are weird…" she frowned lowering the note. "But if you pay, I can't say no."

"There you go!" he lightly boxed the girl's shoulder, with a silly grin.

Pacifica only frowned and lifted from her chair, after ten minutes she was ready and they left for the pastry.

It was overly cute, just like any pastry in Dipper's opinion. Pacifica, however, seemed to like it and ordered three different cakes. Plus a latte.

The boy only took a black coffee and watched with amusement when the blonde bit into the first confection. Maybe she didn't register it but Dipper saw everything. He saw as the shudder from the sweet delight run down her spine and how her cheeks flushed lightly from the happiness. If he knew that it was so easy to make this girl happy he would have done it ages ago.

He rested his head in his palm watching over the girl who now, somehow resembled his sister. As disgusting this statement sounded as true it was. Mabel loved sweets and now he could imagine those two eat out somewhere and just enjoy their sweets while chattering about random nonsense or boys. Yeah, boys. For a split second, the Pines boy felt his heart skip a beat.

"Huh?"

"Hm?" Pacifica glanced up at him. Her lips still curled into an innocent smile.

Dipper felt his ears heat up as he watched the girl lick her finger while still looking at him question obviously left open.

"Want some?" she asked holding up a bite with her small fork.

Before Dipper could say anything Pacifica seem to realize what she was doing and her cheeks became a deeper red tint. She averted her eyes and her hand seemed to tremble a bit. "I mean," she cleared her throat. "wanna taste it?"

"Yeah thanks…" he said hesitantly leaning forward and took the offered cake. His ears were now on fire but he would rather die than actually recognize it.

"How do you like it?" she dug into the third and last cake herself tasting it.

"Way too sweet." he gagged chugging his remaining black down.

"You have no taste…" she chuckled and finished her cake in silence.

Dipper offered a tour in the town while they were still here. When Pacifica asked about the cipher he just swatted the topic away. He got a town map similar to the board back at the bus station and he made them walk all over town and visit every other museum.

Pacifica huffed tiredly when they finally made it to the town square. She dropped to the nearby bench looming over the backrest.

"I want to go back…" she whined, rolling her head to her shoulder watching Dipper map out the area.

"Just a minute," he circled something on the map and turned to the blonde. "okay, want to take the bus?"

She nodded her gaze resting on the guy's face. The ride back to the Motel was silent and relaxing, when they got back the girl's first move was to invade the bathroom.

Just like Dipper hoped. If he was right, the girl was now way too tired for any other activity. He slumped down on his bed, dragging their table closer to him. He watched the girl's handwriting on one of the many papers.

"Dipper I think I got it!" she stormed out of the bathroom, she held up the rusty key they found in the envelope. "Look!" she turned it.

At the back under all the rust, the carving said 'DANCEHALL'. "This may be the key!" she jumped up and down clapping her hands. Then realized what she was doing again forcing her normal self back. "I mean, it would be like Mabel, like with the SECRET."

"I already tried that." guilt washed over Dipper.

"Really?" her shoulders slumped. "Are you sure?"

"Yepp!" he answered way too fast and stood up feigning a yawn. "I am really tired, let's stop for now."

"But we didn't do anything yet!" Pacifica grumbled dropping the key to the table. "Plus isn't that thing today?" she smirked falling to her bed too.

"What?" Dipper lied his right hand gripping the small folded paper in his pocket.

"Oh, come on NERD!" Pacifica teased. "You are acting way too weird!" she frowned "Are you hiding something?"

"No," he lied "and I don't really care about that mystery anymore."

"Yeah, right…" the girl had her theories but remained silent for now.

Both of them relaxed, each on their own bed. When Dipper looked at the girl he saw that the blonde was already sleep. He smiled but he didn't feel happy at all. He tried his best sneaking out of the room without waking Pacifica. When he closed the door he waited for a minute to check if the girl really was sound asleep. When he heard no movements from inside he silently walked down to the reception.

* * *

 **A.N**.: A bit shorter, this time, around, hope you are enjoying this none the less.  
 _ **guest:**_ there will be as much magic as there is in the show ^^


	6. Chapter 6

No one was around, he snorted, some service they had. He stepped outside, the weather was nice even though it was almost midnight. He decided that he would just wait for the tenth to come on the spot rather than going back later the next day.

He adjusted his backpack and started with a light jog to the town square. It took him only twenty minutes to get there from their Motel. He watched the locals come and go about their business. When it seemed like no one was watching he beelined to the old left alone building. Its windows were blinking clean and retro posters were glued to the inside. It looked like the townspeople made their best with it.

It was colorful and fun, yet Dipper knew that this was only the outside. The skin hiding something, even more, fun. Well fun for him. He hugged the wall searching for a back door, and he found it right where he would expect it. To his disappointment the door was sealed up, its handle was broken off and a lot of chains were securing it. He fished out his lock picking set from his bag and started to tinker with the rusty old lock.

Without success, the lock just wouldn't give in no matter how hard he tried.

"Having problems?"

Dipper's reflexes pushed him to the side, hitting his shoulder in the trash container. His heart thundered in his ribcage.

Pacifica grinned at him, crouching just where he was a second ago. Her face was disappointed yet the mad grin stayed there.

"I almost had a heart attack!" Dipper shouted trying to get his heart to halt. He heaved, and nursed his injured shoulder.

"Serves you right." the girl drawled while standing up, and offering a hand for the sulking boy. "You should not have left me behind."

She dragged him up, swatting some dirt from his hoodie. He stopped her hand by gripping her wrist.

"You should not have followed." he squeezed out, turning the girl back and pushing her back. "Go back, I'll be back soon."

"No way in hell." Pacifica frowned crossing her arms before her chest. "First of all." she stepped forward right into Dipper's comfort zone. "You can't even get in without me."

Dipper stepped back. "Secondly," she pushed her finger into his chest "You promised that we would come here together!" her tone was disappointed.

Dipper looked down at the girl, her chest puffed up, holding menacing posture looking right into his eyes. He sighed in resignedly. "Good, but look we can't get in…"

He watched the girl walk from him "…and even if we did get in it…where are…" she stretched at the end of the alley.

Before he could ask or walk up to her, she breathed out long then in, not even trying to enlighten the boy. Then she bolted, her sneakers cried under the force as she pushed her body into motion. Dipper was ready for a power slap or whatever the girl could have thought out. Rather Pacifica just ran up to the container behind him, flinging her body up almost without effort, when her soles touched the metallic top she already jumped.

Her delicate fingers grabbed on the first floor's window, her body shifted to the right and her heel grabbed into the next windows sill. Dipper watched mesmerized as her small figure was already securely holding onto the wall. She stood up, using the two sills and leaned to the right. With crafty fingers she opened the window and in less than two minutes she was in.

The boy gulped no matter what angle he watched this, this was just way too cool. He felt excited, all his fears from before that she may fall dissolved. It seemed like even a valley girl could become awesome climber in just three years. He waited eagerly for the girl, his heart beating like a drum. He couldn't wait to praise the girl for her achievement.

He heard a noise coming from the other side of the door and after some tinkering he heard the rusty hinges give in. The door opened and a brilliant smirk radiated from Pacifica on the other side. Dipper ducked and stepped in between the chains.

"That was amazing!" Dipper riffled the blonde's hair.

"What would you do without me, huh?" she chuckled swatting away his hands.

The inside was dark, but they could see without needing a flashlight. Dust covered everything, the floor still had the girl's steps recorded in the heavy dirt. They advanced slowly, Pacifica informed Dipper about the first floor being in the same condition. Dull light came in from the street, filtered with the colorful posters it was rather cozy.

He opened the book and his notes. "Well if it's right, 54 years ago, this place was burned down."

Pacifica walked around the big dance hall, on one side the wall was covered in mirror, on the wall just before them had beam cutting it half. The girl remembered this from her early days when she had to take Ballet lessons.

"They say this place was the fire nest, " he closed his book, fishing an old machine from his backpack. "guess someone had enough of practicing?"

"You still use this?" the blonde leaned over lightly touching the metal thing in Dipper's hand.

"Yeah, it's still in pretty good shape!" he gloated, slowly turning with his scan.

While he searched the hall Pacifica went up to the mirror, first dragging a finger in the dust, then her whole palm making a shiny line in the covered mirror. She watched her and Dipper's reflection, and something else. For a moment she thought there was something right behind the boy, however when she turned there was nothing again.

She frowned looking back into the mirror again. It was there again, she stepped to the right watching the shadow gloom over her roommate. She bit her lip, how come the thing in his hands didn't show anything? Even back in the Mansion it beeped without stopping. She leaned forward squinting her eyes, she forced herself to recognize where exactly the figure was.

She flinched when her hands slipped into the cold mirror. Her horror only grew when her whole body fell into the wall. She turned right away, watching her reflection smirk. She touched the mirror where her body touched it and watched in horror as her other self let go of the mirror and sauntered over to Dipper.

The boy frowned, if here was any kind of ghost activity it should have already shown something. However, the machine remained silent. Warm arms hugged his arm and he felt Pacifica press her body up against his. He felt a chill run down his spine, and when he looked down at the blonde, she gazed at him mesmerized.

Her eyes were wide open tear glistening in them. "Hey, I wanna get out…" she whined.

The boy watched the girl push even more into him, he was sure that soft thing pushing into his elbow was the girl's chest. This though heated up his face right away, almost dropping his scan.

"You were eager to get in just ten minutes before…" he sighed trying to get the blonde off of him.

"Please~" she drawled, while jumping right before him, and enveloping him in a hug.

"What happened with you?" Dipper peeled her hands from his body.

"Come on darling…" she whispered rising to tiptoe tilting her head.

It clicked way too slow for Dipper, she already kissed his jaw sending shivers all through his body when he finally backed away from the girl.

"Pacifica…" he glanced at the mirror, where her hand's print still stood out like a sore thumb. "…what level was the lumber we exorcised at the Manor?" he pushed his apparat into the backpack hurriedly.

The blonde tilted her head to the side, sweetly tapping a finger on her lower lip. "Dunno…six?"

"Who are you?" he already started to advance to the mirror, searching for any clues he could find.

"Aww was I found out?" her tone didn't change, but her expression was alien for Dipper. She shrugged. "Well, who cares?"

"Are you the pyromaniac?" finally reaching the mirror he looked into it. For a moment, he would heave swore that he felt warmth at his fingertips.

"Pyromaniac?" she giggled prancing in the dust. Bending her body back her head almost touching the floor. "I am just a dancer…"Pacifica's body lunged forward, her body swaying elegantly then hitting the floor with one leg.

She started to twirl again and again while laughing cheerfully. "This body is great!" Pacifica's voice sounded so happy.

Dipper felt anger build up in his stomach, the girl before him was Pacifica but on the inside, it was something else.

"Leave her alone!" he said gripping down on his choice of weapon.

"No way!" finally her voice detorted, laughing maniacally now. "DO YOU KNOW HOW EASY IT WAS?" she hugged her body, her eyes fluttering in ecstasy.

Guilt washed over Dipper, 'If you want to investigate the Dance Hall, do not take her with you! You absolutely can't!' was this what his sister wanted to tell him. He felt the mirror behind him shake, just like somebody was hitting it from the other side.

He gulped, this was it, and didn't one of the student's break the mirrors. What meant that this ghost lived inside it until now? Waiting for someone.

"If you let me have her, I'll tell you things you absolutely cannot know about her?" she drawled on while dancing to her hearts content.

The Pines boy finally had a plan, he tossed one of his special, water filled glasses at the girl. She jumped over it, just as expected. He lunged forward trying to catch the girl but missed miserably and found himself down the dirty ground.

"The body was quite easy to take over, " she said spinning in his direction, her hands drawing delicate forms in the air, then she cracked down her heel impaling the old wooden flooring. " the mind however is still refusing!"

Dipper had to roll over several times, barely dodging the rapid kicks. His injured shoulder hit the floor and he hissed, when he looked up he found Pacifica just over him. Her leg put up on the beam every muscle flexing as she leaned down to him.

Dipper pushed himself up just in time do dodge another kick with both legs. The girl, on the other hand, lounged forward again her body jumping into a cartwheel. He jumped to the side, and the girl got him in his blind spot, the same second her leg touched the floor the other gave a spinning kick. Dipper heaved, his gut was about to give out everything, as he loomed forward he caught a glimpse of another Pacifica in the mirror.

The girl in the mirror motioned to the right so he slid there, effectively saving his head from another hit. The mirror nodded, motioning him to get closer to the mirror. He needed to push himself up, his hand helping him as he rocketed from the floor.

"Come one sweetie!" the ballerina sung prancing after him. "I just want to love you!"

"Yeah…right…" Dipper panted leaning back dodging another kick.

It was funny how he thought of it as dancing with the girl, he focused on the girl's face between the swings from her long legs. It wasn't favoring him that the blonde had more than enough sleep in the last days, so she was in top condition. On the other side, he was getting already out of breath.

Another missed kick cut his thoughts and he sidestepped the furious blonde.

"DIE ALREADY!" these words from the girl's lips were venom to his ears.

However anger made people stupid, and stupid gets you killed. He was only faster a second than the girl, he grabbed the thin hand. Squeezing to the blonde's back, with that pushing her forward. The girl hissed under his grip, trying her best to overpower him. She wasn't lucky, Dipper pushed her up to the mirror.

Regretting it when the girl's cheek hit the mirror with so much strength that he could hear it.

"NO!" she cried "No, Noooo, NOOOOOOOooooo" her mouth foamed as she struggled.

Dipper had to force himself to make the girl stay in place. She squirmed under his touch and fought with everything she had. Finally stalling after a minute. She heaved, her droll slowly dripping down to the dusty floor.

"Pacifica is that you?" his hands still gripped her hand, it must have hurt a lot, but the girl didn't say anything.

She nodded, her skin creaking over the glassy wall.

"What level was the ghost in the Manor?" he asked again.

"Ten…you nerd…" she panted, slowly sinking down to the ground.

He let the hand go and embraced the girl, inhaling her scent as both of them fell to the ground. They heaved, but Dipper did not let go.

"We..have to.." she gulped between breaths. "break the mirror…fast…"

Dipper saw her eyes fluttering shut, and her body became lax over his. His heart skipped a beat, but when he felt a strong pulse still thumping under his fingers he relaxed again. He guardedly put the girl's body to the floor as far from the mirror as possible.

His legs were like jelly and he still hurt when he tried to straighten up. Walking over to the beam he yanked it over and over again until it gave in and a piece came off the wall. He had only energy to drag it to the first mirror.

He watched a figure emerge right beside his reflection, an angry red face staring at him. Her face and body burned, the white of her eyes almost shimmering in the dark face. Her chapped lips were forming words, but he didn't care, he lifted the bar with his last power and hit the mirror with it. It broke into a million pieces, then he went to the next and did the same thing all over the whole wall.

His knees gave out and fell back, he watched the piles of glass shards all over the floor, and then he turned to Pacifica's direction. The girl was still laying there breathing slowly. He crawled next to her softly touching her shoulders.

"You, okay?"

She nodded her eyes still closed, taking deep breaths. Her body curled into embryo pose and her fingers twitched again-again. Her eyes behind her lids were restless, moving and shooting all around.

For Dipper's surprise though even after all this she wasn't shivering nor shaking. She looked rather accustomed. She finally closed her fist gripping down, flexing her muscles till she finally could sit up.

"How are you?" she asked her eyes still closed and head tilted to the wall.

Dipper grumbled in return, unconsciously his hand ran through his hair again "I don't get it…" he leaned for his forgotten bag. He searched for a moment before he pulled out the old book which Mabel left for them. "Here it never said, that it was one of the dancers…" his finger's flipped over the yellowed pages.

"It wasn't the girl…" Pacifica's voice a bit cracked, her head was still leaned to the wall behind them. "…but she was here, she knew who it was…" her eyes remained closed.

"Pacifica, how…" Dipper stared at her in disbelief.

Yet she continued without explanation. "She was dedicated, she loved dancing." her blond hair fell forward as she tried her best to get up.

When Dipper wanted to help she simply ignored his hand. "She was here alone," she bent down and took a bigger shard from the ground. Pacifica's thumb dragged lines on the surface, blindly her eyes still closed. "She danced. It was practice time."

Dipper gulped, it was horrifying, even more, when she was actually possessed. Then he at least knew what was going on but right now.

"Pa-"

"She had the big audition the next day," she held her arms up, flexing her legs.

The boy felt his heart skip a beat when she started to slowly and clumsily dance on the shards, cracking, breaking and grounding them. " then he came." she stopped. "That disgusting man, he watched again." she stomped on one of the biggest shards.

Dipper jumped, and stepped next to the girl. Her form was still too weird for his taste. "Sto-"

Pacifica stepped from him, shielding from the unwanted touch. "He was stinking, she almost threw up…" she heaved still hugging that one shard she picked up before. "He wanted to take advantage of her, but she fought." she ran to the door's direction, then stopped backing away again. "It was hot, she was trapped in…" Pacifica's brows knotted as she looked around the room with closed eyes.

"He pushed her to the ground," she turned watching the now nude wall before them. "She watched it happen in the mirror."

Dipper felt terrible, it was like the building weighed on him. He felt a cold sweat run down his templates and he wanted to the girl to stop. However, he just felt and knew that it will not end just here so he remained silent.

"He left her here," she pointed at the dusty ground. "she felt it when the fire started to lick her body." her voice wavered. "she stared at her reflection as she died."

"Hey, Dipper…" she turned slowly opening her eyes. "I wanna get out…"

The same sentence wasn't the only thing that made Dipper back a step away from the blonde. He could swear that one of her eyes just simmered green for a moment. Yet he nodded walking up to the door and let the girl out.

Pacifica eagerly stepped over the first chain and bend down to get out of the dusty old studio. When her feet touched the concrete she felt her body become light. She stepped out and happiness flowed into her. A smile slowly appearing on her chapped lips.

Dipper watched the girl run into the square when she stopped staring at the colorful posters mesmerized. Her hands tightening on the shard, still not tight enough to draw blood. She turned looking around, the illuminated statue and all the other buildings. Her eyes reflected joy and pure happiness.

"Who are you?" Dipper stepped next to the girl.

The blonde glanced up at him, her lips curled into a smile. "Your friend is really nice," she pushed her weight from one leg to another. "did you know that? She let me take a look before I go."

"You…" Dipper wanted to say something before he realized that the shard didn't reflect Pacifica, but a happy green eyed redhead.

"Be sure to help her thought she-" the blonde swayed a bit like she lost her balance. She let the shard fall, it broke to a million pieces, almost becoming dust on the pavement.

"Pacifica yo-" he wanted to steady the girl.

"Don't touch me!" she snarled, pushing the hand away. Realizing what she did a moment too late. She sighed pinching the bridge of her nose. "Sorry, I just," she averted her eyes "I need time."

Dipper watched the girl, and he couldn't shake that irritating guilt from his heart. He was sure that this was the real Pacifica now, just like she was the one telling him that horrifying story too. He gulped, he saw possessions before but this was different. Not just because it was someone close to him, Mabel was possessed one time too, but the fact that it was resolved in this kind of way was new. Most of the times spirits would just disappear after cleansing, or when their last wish was granted.

Surely the ballerina's last wish was to get out, yet who was in the mirror that was cleansed then?

"Okay, let's get back."

Their steps were in sync yet neither of them have spoken till they got back to the Motel. The receptionist was now in his place. He watched the two-step in when he glanced at the blonde he paled. All blood left his face and he toppled over the chair he was sitting in. Apologizing he scurried to the back room and Dipper even heard the lock click after him.

He blinked for a while and watched Pacifica's tired form leave him behind. When he caught up, she was already hiding under her blanket.

It was already three in the morning, he slumped down to his own bed watching the pulp of his roommate. He rested his head on the bedhead and let his arms fall to his sides. This was bad, this was really bad. He hasn't felt this guilty in years. It wasn't supposed to happen like this. He should just have told the girl he broke the code and leave.

He rubbed his eyes, anger was already swirling inside him. He was really angry at himself, he should not let this happen. When the first small cry came from the other side of the room he felt blood freeze in his veins. He turned to watch the body on the next bed squirm and silently sob. Her hands grabbing and loosening on the covers, with every breath.

That was the moment he decided. He pushed himself from his mattress and lunged for his phone on the small table. His fingers hurriedly tapped on the device, finally finding Mabel's number. He shook when a louder whine escaped the girl. Thinking that she didn't have a nightmare after their night in the wilderness this tore him apart.

Calling his sister was no option, she would never answer his call while she was still in chase mode. He decided with a message.

*I messed up. I took her there, she is in bad shape call back, asap.*

He stared at the screen in his hand, an ice cold feeling slowly wrapping around his heart, he pushed send. He huffed letting the phone hit the mattress, he sidestepped the bed and lowered himself next to the girl's. He leaned over the girl's bed, softly seeking out her hand and taking it in his own.

When he first touched it the skin felt cold under his fingers. Yet gradually warmed up to his touch, and he finally felt better again. He pulled back the blanket, glancing at the pale face before him. She never looked this bad, not even when she first showed up back in that room.

"I'll give this one to you," he whispered drawing circles on Pacifica's hand. " 3-2" he smiled then sleepiness caught up to him too.


	7. Chapter 7

_She was drifting away in the endless corridor of Mabel's dorm. Her hands held out far, she felt her muscles stretch as she grabbed for the closed door's handle again. Her heart was beating in her throat. Her pulse over the top as a new voice joined the crowd that was after her._

 _Just a bit more, she chanted silently. Her lungs fighting every breath, the air was thick and hot. Her fingertips finally caught the handle. Her eyes widened in horror as the hot metal started to envelope her hand slowly._

 _It hurt. Her mouth opened to a silent cry as she tried her best to take back her now burning hand. The metal slowly started to advance up onto her body, eating away her skin. The air was suffocating, her body jerked forward._

 _There were no noises, no voices now just the pain. Agonising and shuddering pain. Sadness and betrayal. She clasped her eyes, hoping that if she blinked some the sizzling metal would disappear. The burn was still advancing on her forearm when she finally opened her eyes again._

 _The dorm's long and dark hallway was nowhere, rather shiny hardwood flooring and wall long mirrors shone up before her. Her sole touched the wood under and her body stretched upward. All her weight now on her toes, her legs flexed her back went rigid before her head lolled backwards._

 _She felt the gulp run down her neck as her eyes widened, her stare glued to the white painted ceiling. Before she could move her hands bend upwards, the metal now at her shoulder. Her body shook from the pain yet her arms drew elegant circles before she started to twirl._

 _Her eyes still on the white ceiling she couldn't move her body, It was like she was back in the building again, but that couldn't be. Dipper took her out, he helped her. He saved her._

 _Someone grabbed her head forcefully turning it to the mirrors. The hand on her skin felt chapped and the smell of burnt meat invaded her senses as the white gradually changed into dark gray._

 _Pacifica's eyes flicked back and forth trying to get a blink at her assailant then her gaze stopped on the mirror before her. Her body was wrenched into a disfigured pose. It hurt just looking at it, then she spotted the girl behind her._

 _Her hot breath hit her skin and it was worse than the metal that was dripping down her arm. Her white eyes almost shined, standing out in the black and brown of the burned skin and meat. Then it smiled, its skin ripping and blood oozing out at the tears._

 _Pacifica watched in horror as the hand languidly guided her head to turn so it would be able to whisper to her. She felt the blood drip to her skin and it burned, unlike the metal, it was marring her skin, her flesh. Now her heart was breaking in her ribcage, she had to wake up, she had to._

 _'_ _Next time you won't wake up…'_

"Pacifica!"

The girl jumped in her bed, rapidly gripping the hand that was holding her shoulders down. In a blur, her knees shot up, and she felt it collide with her target. A grunt made it clear that she really did hit. Yet the hands still pushed her into the mattress she tossed her body to the right. But the hold didn't loosen, rather shook her again.

"Pacifica! It's me!" Dipper panted his mouth pushed into a painful gesture.

The Northwest finally realized where she was. Her heartbeat at a rapid rhythm, her breathing was irregular. She felt sweat dribble down on her skin. She gasped for air, her lungs finally started to fill again, and she forced her lips to close.

Pacifica closed her eyes for a second before opening them again. She was awake again. She was back. Her body relaxed somewhat but Dipper's hands were still holding her down. She glanced up into those brown eyes, and she found concern.

"It's okay, I am awake now." she said her hands touching the tattooed arm. "You can let go." her voice was almost nothing but a whisper as she gulped she showed her best reassuring glance.

But the Pines boy didn't move for another long minute, still searching the girl's stare. He sighed and let the girl go. Finally taking the chance to nurse his hurting right side, which Pacifica must have kicked.

The girl watched him slowly slump down to the floor, a small smile tugging at the corner of her lips. Even though it was an accident, there was just no way she would apologize. She wanted to lift herself to her elbows but pain shot through her left arm and she fell back with a wince.

Dipper stilled right away and stared at her as she lowered her T-shirt's neckline. Both of them became very still when they spotted the dark blotch on her otherwise white skin.

It hurt. Pacifica watched the spot with mild interest before pulling the shirt back to its place and pulling herself up.

"What is that?" the boy asked still on the floor, watching the girl saunter around the bed.

"Yesterday I hit it when you fought with the ghost." she answered without sparing a glance before she closed the bathroom door behind herself. She leaned against the door examining the burnt mark.

She patted her pockets searching for her phone, she was ready. The time was already coming, yet when she wanted to dial she stopped. Her mind ran in circles, thinking about the boy outside the door. The nerd who was nursing his aching right side because she just so conveniently kicked him. The boy who saved her, even if he was the one causing the trouble in the first place.

Pacifica sighed, finally opening the tap, letting the cold water calm her senses. Just when she was about to get out and tell Dipper to leave this damned place, her head felt like splitting in half. She gasped wobbling back a step before falling to the ground.

Her bottom hurt when she hit the cold tiles on the ground. She grabbed the sides of her head and panted frantically. Sometimes this happened after an incident but it never felt this bad. Pictures from yesterday and from years ago flashed through her mind. Mixing her reality with the ballerina's memories.

She gulped, closing her eyes tightly. Trying her best to calm her breathing. She stirred when Dipper knocked on the door.

"Are you alright?"

Concern. Pacifica felt her heart beat even faster. He cared. She felt a stab at the side of her head and she lurched forward. Her stomach started to act up. Pacifica tried her best to stop it, but she wasn't able. Not fast enough.

"I am coming in!" Dipper said opening the door without putting any strength to it. "Are yo-" he stopped, his breath hitching as he looked down to the squirming girl.

The blonde didn't even realize that she fell over as she pushed the sides of her head frantically trying to stop the pain while heaving and already shivering on the ground. Her eyes snapped up to Dipper who was shell-shocked in the door.

A new series of shivers run down her body, her posture tight as a ball. Dipper fell next to her trying his best to take the girl's hands from her hair. Her eyes were the only calm thing about her as her mouth gaped in pain and her body trembled.

 _'_ _You should have left when you had the time.'_

Pacifica's eyes snapped up, she could merely see anything as dark dots painted her vision. But over Dipper's frame over the dots, in the door stood a dark figure looming over the two of them.

"N…"

"PACIFICA!"

 _'_ _We told you…'_ the shadow leaned in, dropping its disgusting dark material over Dipper, who tried his best to sit the girl up. _'You are mine…'_ a burning white eye popped _'…mine…'_

Pacifica's throat clenched, her tongue felt dry. She wasn't sure if her voice was even audible by now. But she felt strong arms enveloping her into a hug, she could look over the boy's shoulder as he rocked her back and forth. Trying to soothe her.

She closed her eyes when the entity stopped right before her. The dark fog licking up to Dipper's body. Her teeth clenched, she had to say it.

"GO away…" she panted and Dipper froze right in the spot. "leave ME ALONE…" her right hand started to burn and she grabbed the boy's shirt for comfort. "This is DIPPER'S ROOM you…you…" she needed to finish it.

"THIS IS MY ROOM!" Dipper shouted, shaking the girl lightly. "YOU ARE NOT WELCOME HERE!"

Pacifica could hear the cackling before the dark figure disappeared into nothing, leaving the bathroom to bask in the morning sun. They both remained silent, and just as fast the pain came it went with the entity.

The girl felt her chest rise and fall, touching Dipper's every time. Her hand was still clenching down the thin material of the Pines shirt. Yet the relief of the pain now gone was so big that she let her frame lean against Dippers. She even chuckled; she felt her eyes water, pushing her forehead into the boy's shoulder.

The boy hugged her still, his mind running in circles. Was this because what happened yesterday? Dipper felt a light chuckle hit his chest, and relief surged through his body. They stayed like this for a while, and he didn't find in him to ask anything. Even though he had a thousand questions, but right now the most disturbing thing was the realization about the girl's chant he just finished.

"Is something following you?" he asked, still holding their pose.

The tug on his shirt stopped, just like the nice moment between them, as the girl slowly peeled herself from the boy's body. With ease, only a Northwest could demonstrate she pushed herself up. Leaving the dumbstruck boy back on the floor.

"Thank you." she said rather than answering and sprinkled her face with cold water.

"Pacifica-" Dipper leaned forward crossing his arms over his knees.

"We should leave." she spared him a glance before she wobbled out of the bathroom. Leaving the boy behind.

Dipper sat in the middle of the bathroom, the girl made it look like nothing happened just a few minutes prior. Anger flooded his mind as he pushed up, almost running out of the bathroom. Causing no surprise for the girl who was buried in her duffle bag. Her branded box laying on her bed still unopened.

Pacifica stood there unfazed by the practically fuming Dipper. Her hand, however, stopped on the zipper when the boy literally exploded into the room.

"What is going on? Tell me right now!" as much as he wanted he just couldn't get his anger under control.

Pacifica lifted her gaze to the boy, her earlier shock nowhere to be found. "We are leaving." the girl's face remained tight.

"What was that before in the bathroom?!" he gulped, his hands flexed pointing to the now empty. His fist balled as it hit side. "And don't you dare to say it's a secret!"

He felt a new kind anger wash over him when the girl's lips opened then closed without a sound leaving them. Her hand zipped her duffle bag up, pushing its strap over her head she crossed her arms before her chest.

"I was at the campus because Mabel called me over."

"What?" Dipper's brows knotted and the air left his lung in a long sight. "What does this have to do anything with what hap-"

"One mystery solved," she fumbled in her pocket, lifting a creased paper, which was horrifyingly familiar to the boy "One secret revealed." she said a smirk appearing on her lips as the boy paled.

Dipper pushed both of his hands in his pockets, fishing around without effort. "I..it was.I m-"

"I found it on the floor," she turned the paper, glancing at the hastily written message. "I knew you were way too weird yesterday," she leaned forward, her hair blocking the boy's view as she lifted her box. " but to lie, you really are ..." the sentence remained unfinished.

With that, she left, leaving a dumbfounded Dipper back. He was so shocked that for a while he was not even able to move a muscle. All the anger flew out the window the moment the girl lifted the note. He hurriedly packed his own backpack, he forced himself to take a big lump air before he checked his phone. Mabel didn't contacted him yet. He literally ran down the hallway, skipping several stair steps, stopping just in time to catch Pacifica at the reception.

"You are in danger!" the man whispered, so Dipper had to lean forward to hear anything from the conversation.

"Thank you bu-" she tried her best to take back her hand that was held in an iron grip.

"I can help you." the man continued insistently on holding the girl back.

Dipper watched, his breath hitched when he saw the girl's face turn into a sad smile. Almost on the verge of crying. She took her hand back and politely refused. Blinking away anything that could give away her misery she thanked the receptionist and left.

Only when Dipper heard the bell on by the door did he run down the remaining steps. Stopping right before the man, just hoping that the girl would go the same place as him. Yet when the guy spotted him he averted his eyes.

"What were you talking about the girl before" he was again angry, not sure for what. These last three days were just too much for him. He felt the stress from the last days catch up with him. His hands shook from withheld frustration so he rather shoved them into his pockets.

"That girl," he gulped. "She is…"

"What's with her?" checking his watch he contemplated if they would be able to catch the next train.

"She is in danger. I tried to tell her so before." the man's eyes snapped from one point in the lobby to another. Like he was searching something, something he would rather have outside.

"You said what?" the boy's guts twirled, his emotions barking at each other, as to be scared for the girl, or be utterly angry.

The man now started to crack his knuckles causing Dipper further unpleasant feelings. "That girl has, so many souls following her, but she wouldn't let me help." he gulped, "She said-"

But Dipper couldn't hear the rest, he didn't need to. He ripped the door open, ready to sprint down the road. But to his surprise the girl was just there, leaning against the wall next tot door. Kicking a pebble before realizing he was there.

"You took long." Pacifica said without feeling she pushed herself from the wall and started to walk. Stopping again when she registered that the boy was still cemented into the same spot. "What?"

"I..I thought…" Dipper strode next to her, catching up, his feelings and reasoning falling to pieces.

"I wouldn't abandon you just because you lied." Pacifica snorted, rolling her eyes. She replaced her bag so it was at her back now, leaving more place for Dipper.

"Pacifica I want to talk about what happened." Dipper let his anger bubble up again.

"Hey, Dork!" she smiled and it sent shivers down Dipper's spine. Because it was the kind of smile she used when they were kids. The one reserved to annoyances. "I'll tell you everything when we catch your sister."

Dipper fell silent, and the girl took it as agreement turning around and walking before him. He followed slowly his head spinning. Anger still flowing in him, but he was good at that concealing it, hiding it. Letting it boil, waiting for that one fact that could unleash it.

His backpack hit his back with every step. Was she really haunted, but after yesterday's events wasn't that the only thing possible? He cut the corner, his mind screamed at him to be faster. To catch up with the Northwest, to find his sister and put an end this all.

Just as he thought, the girl would not have wagered the chances at the bus station so she too thought about the trains. They bought the tickets in silence, took their seats on the opposing sides. Pacifica had her box in her lap, her fingers tapping on the closed object.

She pushed play on her phone and was listening to music now. No matter how long Dipper examined the girl she was a mystery almost bigger then Gravity Falls itself. One day she was sweet, the other mean, then she sought his help. He thought for sure that their relationship was closer to friends than ever. Even after yesterday's events, he would have apologized a thousand times. So why didn't he? He sure as hell wanted.

Then something happened again this morning and here they were. Back at day one where the wall between them was solid and high. His throat clenched, his mind flooded with all the thing he said.

 _"_ _You put my sister in danger every time you dump a guy and they come after you, huh_?" he said that didn't he?

 _"_ _If it's possible, please stop it."_

He pinched his nose, massaging the skin there, his shoulder still hurt when he leaned back finally seeking the soft seat under him. When he glanced up, he saw Pacifica dozing off too. He just needs a little sleep that's all. After that, he will talk to her no matter what kind of excuse the Northwest comes up with. They will talk it over.

He woke with a jolt when the train lounged into motion again. For a brief second he couldn't even remember where he was, then his eyes caught the ugly green duffle bag and the box next to it on the opposite seat.

He groaned sitting up and looking around, the girl must have only left for the toilet or something. He thought, even Pacifica wouldn't leave just like that. He waited patiently, taking in the scenery that was new to him. Glancing down his watch, he deducted that they were only a half an hour away from their goal.

Most likely, from their last stop before the blonde, promised to clear everything up. Dipper stretched hearing his shoulder snap and wincing in pain. After ten minutes, he started to get suspicious, leaning forward he looked around the cart they sat in. An old woman sat almost across from them and him – still unbelieving, still theorizing- stood up closing the distance between them.

"Excuse me." the lady looked up her heavy makeup forming a smile "I was wondering if you saw my uh, friend, yeah friend?"

The woman leaned out to the corridor separating the seats, then back to her seat. "You were alone when I got on two stops before this."

Dipper's blood froze, forgetting to thank the woman what so ever, he sprinted back to their seats. First, he almost ripped the duffle bag open, where only some clothes and an empty bottle mocked him. His gaze slipped to the box with her name all over it, still unopened.

He panicked.

He felt like hurling, what if something happened. What if while he was asleep she had an attack just like this morning again? What if she was taken away by those things, what if-

He didn't even want to think about that one. He fished his phone out of his pocket looking at the screen realizing he didn't even know the girl's number. His phone chirped in that moment, rendering him motionless.

*Nice try bro-bro! If something really happened, she would have contacted me.*

* * *

A.N.: Sorry for the long wait, I had some IRL issues that neede to be taken care of. Hope thare are still people interested in this story because it is still very far from the ending. :) For this chapter I have reawritten it four different ways, I still don't know if this is the best. But I kind of liked it, hope you'll find it good! Thanks for reading! 3


	8. Chapter 8

Pacifica healed out long and deep, letting her head rest on Dipper's chest. Finally relaxing a bit after the attack just mere seconds ago.

"Is something following you?" his hand still on her back, his voice filled with concern and Pacifica didn't miss the curiosity either.

She sighed before she peeled Dipper's hands off, her legs still trembled a bit as she stepped to the sink, looking at her gray reflection. The water was still running and she finally sprinkled her face. The cold water felt so good her lungs filled with air again.

"Thank you." she gulped gripping the porcelain under her fingers 'For yesterday too…' she thought slowly backing away from the mirror, forcing a neutral emotion on her face.

"Pacifica…" she averted her eyes knowing that looking at the boy right now would be a mistake.

"We should leave." good her voice was nice and smooth. She left the bathroom almost running for it right away. Calculating how long it would take to pack her bag and the box and just get away from here.

Her shaky legs took great strides to her bed, her eyes cast down on the old carpet under her feet. Yeah, like she would be able to leave the boy back, that would be a disaster. No, she had to. Her thought stopped when her eyes locked on a small paper ball.

She took it from the floor ready to toss into the bin but stopped when the familiar color of ink caught her attention. She pushed the ball between her fingers and soon enough it unfolded. She stood over her bag, her eyes wide open as she read the letters Dipper must have written in secret.

Her gaze shifted on the sentences, and rather than being sad her heart felt lifted somehow. This was good. This was a good sign, her hand pushed the paper deep into her pocket when the bathroom door was kicked out.

Her hands stopped on the zipper of her duffle bag as Dipper exploded into their room. She saw the anger swirling in his features. For the first time, it was real. He was outrageous; somehow it made her even more satisfied. She blamed her upbringing, even in situations like this. What was she thinking, in situations exactly like this, was she the most aware that she was a Northwest.

And a Northwest never loses.

"What is going on? Tell me right now!" Dipper started.

"What was that before in the bathroom?!" he gulped, his hands flexed pointing to the now empty bathroom. His fist balled as it hit his side. "And don't you dare to say it's a secret!"

She watched his turmoil. Her gaze lingering on his knotted brows. Her heart was beating faster, she already had her answer. She zipped up her bag and straightened.

"I was at the campus because Mabel called me over."

"What?" She heard the confusion in his voice, and it was just ready. Her little trap. "What does this have to do anything with what hap-"

"One mystery solved," she fumbled in her pocket, lifting a creased paper, which caused the boy to literally stiffen. His eyes snapping between her face and the little paper. "One secret revealed." she felt a smirk appear, the one that she methodically learned when she was young.

Dipper pushed both of his hands in his pockets, most likely he hid it there from her, but their little morning exercise must have knocked it out of his sweater. "I..it was. I m-"

"I found it on the floor," she turned the paper, glancing at the hastily written message. "I knew you were way too weird yesterday," she leaned forward, her hair blocking the boy's view as she lifted her box. " but to lie, you really are ..." the sentence remained unfinished. Turning on her heels she marched forward.

When she got to the stairs she simply jumped from the top, landing just before the receptionist. Her heart was pumping and she had to remind herself, that Dipper had the same plan that her, so running now wasn't an option.

She was ready to leave when the man behind the desk grabbed her wrist, halting her motion.

"Like wha-" she tugged her arm.

"Are you alright?" he asked his eyes filled with fear "are they gone now?"

She gasped before tugging again and again but the man just wouldn't let her go. Her eyes searched around, right now she was really concerned that leaving without the boy may have been a mistake after all.

"You are in danger!" the man whispered, and she stiffened. This wasn't what she was thinking would come. When she saw the same concerned expression on the receptionist's face her stomach lurched up. Even though it was empty right now, she felt like she would throw up.

"Thank you bu-" she tried her best to take back her hand that was held in an iron grip.

"I can help you." the man continued insistently on holding the girl back. The hand was sweaty and she wanted to leave. She needed air, she needed to escape from here. The air felt stuffy and the man just would not leave her.

She was on the verge of crying. She took her hand back and politely refused. Trying her best act to push those tears back, she leaned forward just before leaving. "No one can help." and she felt her lips tremble.

Outside she finally took in the fresh morning air, filling her lungs. Yet the stomach ache remained. She leaned against the wall waiting. There was no need to run, he would just catch up. Eventually, he will catch up to all of this. She sighed and heard the bell chime right next to her.

"You took long." Pacifica said as she pushed herself from the wall and started to walk. Stopping again when she registered that the boy was still cemented into the same spot. "What?"

She knew the answer but she needed some time to relax her muscles. Her face felt stiff, her hands deep in her pockets. Desperately trying to not cross them before her chest.

"I..I thought…" Dipper strode next to her, catching up, his face crestfallen. And she saw something else, she just couldn't put anywhere. Was that anger still, she smiled.

"I wouldn't abandon you just because you lied." she snorted, rolled her eyes for a more dramatic effect. Her hands as restless as they were just replaced her bag for the fifth time.

"Pacifica I want to talk about what happened." She heard the tone change, she could just turn around tell everything. Tell him what was going to happen now. How he would hate her more, yet she decided against it.

"Hey, Dork. I'll tell you everything when we catch your sister." and she smiled her best smile. Her business smile and it finally shut him up.

The promise to meet his sister, the promise that he will know what was going on seemed to calm him. Dipper Pines was the most gullible person she knew. A fool. A fool Pacifica Northwest adored for his foolishness. As untrustworthy she was, somehow, some twisted way he seemed to trust her. She repressed a giggle at the though.

Dipper Pines only trusted one and only one person his whole life. Most likely it will stay that way.

Mabel Pines.

They never exchanged another word. Not like Dipper wasn't intent. Pacifica could see it from miles away, the way he opened then closed his lips without a word. Or how his left leg wouldn't stop drumming between the two seats they have taken.

He was at the end of his good nature, she could tell. So she did what was the best. Waited. She pushed her earplugs in and made him believe she listened to music. Watching Dipper's reflection watching her, and she acted like was about to doze off.

It wasn't far from the truth, she was tired. Immensely so. However, she could not let herself nod off just yet. When Dipper's heavy lids finally fell, she waited till his breathing evened and his foot stopped the drumming.

Pacifica straightened and waited one more minute before she opened her bag. Watching Dipper sleep, she smiled again. For real, her heart swelling because of the misplaced trust in her. When they started this, she was sure that this would only last a few days. Yet here they were weeks later. Keeping each other on the edge.

Her hands found the canvas bag in the mess and she pushed several clothes into it. Her papers and she sunk her phone in there too. When she was finished, she hid the tote behind her, fearing that the Pines boy would stir at the sound of the zipper.

Dipper's chest lifted and fell in a peaceful rhythm and she sighed at the sight. Taking it in, feeling like a creep for watching. He saved her. Not even once now, well it was partially his fault. She reasoned, before swatting it away, because let's be honest she had to go.

The train slowed down, before stopping altogether, her fingers stopped on her unopened box. She desperately wanted to know what was inside. It was a present after all. Staring at the handwritten patterns on the cardboard, she let sadness wash over her.

Pacifica watched an old woman take the seat not too far from them and her plan started. She waited for the mechanical whistle, signaling the departure. When Dipper didn't stir at that either she stood up slowly sparing a last glance at the box.

She had to leave it, this was her only choice, it could win her several minutes before Dipper realizes what happened. As quiet as she could she stepped out the lane, walking up to the lady.

"Excuse me," she smiled sweetly but sure that her voice was trembling just a bit. "Can I ask you a favor?"

The woman looked her up and down, her getup wasn't the most appealing but she betted everything she had on this stranger right now. The woman nodded.

Pacifica pointed at Dipper "When that boy wakes up and comes here asking about me…" she cast her eyes down embarrassed "could you t..tell him I already departed?" she tried her best to blush. Hands trembling.

She was lucky because the woman didn't ask anything, just nodded slower this time. Pacifica felt the train move under her feet. She needed to be fast, she took the woman's hands into her own and gripped them lightly whispering a thank you before bolting for the next car.

Her feet carried her fast, while the train under her was slowly speeding up. Her plan was to hide. If her hunches were any good, Dipper would ask the first person in the range about her. Right now only the old lady was in their car, so it was a safe bet to ask her.

Pacifica stopped before the next car, there were almost no empty seats for a while now. With five or more cars between the two of them, she had the courage to slump down next to a little kid who was eyeing her suspiciously.

She stared him down, till his little eyes widened and his face became bright red, she huffed triumphantly. A smirk playing on her lips as she slowly let her body relax a bit. Chances were that the boy would still look after her even if he asks the old woman. Yet this was her best bet for now, and her destination got closer and closer.

It just wasn't time for the Pines boy to put the puzzle together yet. She needed more time. Her stare slowly lowered to her burning right hand. It started to itch back in the bathroom, and it only became more irritating as the day went on.

She had to physically restrain herself from scratching the back of her hand. It was like all the long years' pain and irritation finally broke free in that one spot. Pacifica huffed and tried her best to actually concentrate on the task before her. She already sent the messages out, and the replies came fast.

It was finally time.

I

Dipper dialed. Yet her sister's phone wasn't accepting calls right now. Figures. He tossed his phone to the seat next to him. He lunged forward breathing deep, his hands grabbing at his head. He rocked forward and back, trying to calm his nerves. His hands were full with his unruly hair and he tugged at it in frustration.

Times like this, when he couldn't solve something, when he was left in the dark still tore at his nerves. He bit his lower lip, hard so that the pain would just anchor him to the reality. Taking a deep breath he slowly started to calm down.

He needed what he was best with, a plan. His hands slowly let his scalp breath out too. He straightened and opened his notebook. Taking his pen he started to tap. Almost in rhythm with the train under him.

What did he know? He smirked at his own stupidity, he knew nothing. It wasn't even the worst, the worst was that he had let himself be led around by two girls, one of them his own twin. And he just noticed it.

He jotted down the date he got the e-mail from Mabel, then the date his sister must have left. It was almost a month now. She started a week before them, and they had taken just over two weeks to catch up to her. Given this was really the last hint and the last spot.

There was still a little over 2 weeks before their birthday, so the 'best birthday present ever' as Mabel referred to, was still near. If it was only Mabel he would have already solved this one, because one just simply learned to love Mabel's crazy, and to live with it.

But.

His hand wrote down Pacifica's name before he even had time to think about her. She was there, on that day. Running from the thing that seemed to follow her even to the Motel. He jotted down 'Haunted' next to the girl's name.

If what the blond said was true than the last time they met, was three years ago. At their birthday party, none the less. She said that she met Mabel a week before they started the chase.

He stopped. One week.

 _"Last week, okay! I met her last week here, are you happy now?!"_

He snorted, he wasn't happy then, he wasn't happy now. How stupid. She even said it just a day prior his sister announced it to him on the first video message. He let his head roll back and leaned against the window.

Dipper Pines, self-crowned mystery solver was played by his own sister. Well, it wasn't just her, Pacifica was part of the problem too. He glanced to his notepad where his pen still tapped at the blonde's name.

What did he actually know about her?

His sleep deprived mind played numerous memories of her from the last two weeks. Her high and mighty attitude, her quirky quips, her angry stare.

Then his heart almost stopped as a light pink painted face beamed up to him, her blue eyes shimmering with joy.

 _"Let's find Ursa Major!"_

Dipper felt his ears heat up, this wasn't the time or the memory he needed. After he cleared his throat and pushed that memory as far to the back of his mind as he could he look down again. His hand found his neck which was aching from the constant exertion.

Answering his own question, he knew that Mabel was the one who called the Northwest to the Campus just a week prior the chase began. Did that mean that Pacifica knew about the chase? Sure didn't seem so, when she exploded into the room.

Yeah, the first time he saw her she was running from the thing that seemed to leave her only if she chanted. Yet it only caused more questions. Every time she used someone else's room as an excuse. Did that mean that if the thing followed her to her own home then…

The train stopped. Dipper looked out at the station, the crowd waiting for the train tried their best to get on the vehicle as fast as possible. The boy couldn't blame them, the weather turned to the worse again. The sky was dark and even though it was pretty warm a chill run down his skin.

He looked back to his notes, where numerous words, numbers and question marks stood. His gaze rested on the words haunted, Mabel and meeting. Tapping on his sister's name, his mind finally started to clear.

 _ ***** So, he came back huh? *****_

It was what his sister said to Pacifica in the video. Back then he was sure it was a boy or a man who was following her to Mabel's dorm. He lunged forward, almost ripping his backpack open. He knew that he took and hid Pacifica's notes just in case. After rummaging for a while he finally found it.

 ***** Paz!

Look what I found. It was back there. Please don't go back there anymore! Come to my place, or if you are with my brother good luck finding me!

XOXO MABEL 3 *****

Mabel knew. She knew it all along. She even encouraged her to visit her when in pinch.

Dipper felt betrayed. Mabel would have told him something like this. Well, as the example showed, she did not. Dipper exhaled long and deep. Why wouldn't she? He was an expert in this field. If Pacifica would just let him help, he would have.

And it wouldn't just be because his fingers tinged with excitement whenever someone mentioned a ghost or a mystery. Well part of him, the author in him as he referred to it, wanted nothing more than to ask the blond about all the things and all the ghost that seemed to follow her. About the charred figure and the happy ballerina.

He exhaled.

Another part of him, however, wanted to strangle the girl for her stupidity. She should just have called him. Okay, they weren't friends before this, but. He stopped, taking the duffle bag and the box so a couple could take the empty seats before him.

They weren't friends now for sure. A sigh escaped him, and he was surprised how enraged he felt. The only thing he could depend on now was the fact that Pacifica seemed to want something from Mabel too. Whatever it was, she would surely find her.

Yet, the only message he exchanged with his twin was about the blond and how she didn't contact Mabel. This was another interesting thing. Dipper's brows lifted. Wasn't Mabel way too relaxed, believing Pacifica so much as she would call her right after what happened in the DanceHall?

His fingers danced on the package. No matter how, or what he needed to get to his sister first and then locate Pacifica. If the lady told the truth, she took off the train and had to take another transportation method. Given her low budget, that she mentioned numerous times. Whining about any Motel he suggested just a bit over the price that she thought about. It could only have been another train or bus.

But why would she leave? She didn't seem like the kind of girl who would run for it at the first chance she had. If anything she was logical and mostly calculated. Sly when times asked for that.

Dipper's hand stopped on the carton. There must have been something else. Something else other than Mabel that made the girl stick to him. He pressed his lips together, he needed to push the urge to chew on his pen.

Before he realized his hands already tore at the clear plastic holding the box together. It wasn't right. This wasn't meant for him. Yet he needed to know if there was something that he could use to find both of the girls.

On the top of the package was a letter addressed to the Northwest. Dipper put it to the side, for now, securing it with his phone on the seat next to him. Under that in brown paper, various things lay, one stranger than the other. Earlier she got a necklace with her zodiac, and now this.

The first thing was a small notebook, address book rather, where everyone's address and contact info was jotted down in Mabel's cutesy curved font. McGucket, Robbie, even Wendy's and his. He stared at his contact, his eyes wide. Nothing else. Just the nine contacts info of the zodiac. As he turned the pages over and over again only one was missing. Gideon Gleeful's.

Dipper's forehead creased. He put the address book down, his right hand already back in the box. One package of Mabel's favorite sweets, they were melted into big lumps. Dipper grimaced as he tossed the snack to the side. At the bottom of the box was something carefully wrapped in gift paper. It was easier to open than he thought, from the glittery paper a tie-dye shirt fell to his lap. It was from Mabel for sure, lately, she made these type of shirts with the same vehemence as she used to knit.

Shame painted Dipper's face, it was a present nothing else. It was painted like a watermelon and he could not imagine the blond actually wearing it. Even in the last week, she was dressed fashionably. Not bothering with the heat when it came to looking good.

He slowly folded the T-shirt and put the paper back, when he was about to put it back his hands stopped. At the bottom of the package lay a photograph. He lifted it turning it over, but there were only two words on the back.

'Mystery Trio'

When he turned the photo he was surprised to recognize everyone. The picture was taken at night by a bonfire so the lines were all blurred yet, without a doubt, the three girls grinning were all familiar. Candy posing with victory signs on the right, Grenda grinning in the middle her buff arms locked on the two other girl's shoulders. On the left Pacifica smirked, one hand on her waist, her usual confident pose, while her other arm was linked with the tall girl's in the middle.

The lighting made them look like they had auras. It was such a nice picture of the three. Dipper turned and analyzed the photo again and again. It was an older one. At least 4 or 5 years old.

If he had to guess, he would have said that it was taken in the Falls. Yet it could as well have been taken at any other camp or wood the girls visited. Hadn't Pacifica say that she went back to the Falls every summer. Well at least this seemed to be of some kind of proof of that.

He put back everything with languid movements. The only thing he didn't tear open yet, was the envelope. And somehow he felt guiltier by the second as he finally packed everything.

The letter felt heavy in his palm, and he squinted at Pacifica's name in his sister's handwriting. After two weeks he was still surprised by the relationship that Mabel held in secret with the Northwest. Not that it was actually surprising when Ford said that she had charm and could just make a thousand friends in a second wasn't a lie.

Mabel was just like that. Charming.

The envelope was not glued so it opened without resistance. The letter was only four sentences yet Dipper's blood froze on spot.

'You left that by me last time.

I don't know why you need this; I don't know why I don't have those dreams anymore.

If it is what I think it is then you are in bigger trouble than I thought.

Stay safe, we will meet in Gravity Falls.'


End file.
